Client of sex worker Jenny Hayes blames tragedy for brutal assault

The house guest who ripped off a sex worker — prompting her to start a fire that killed a young family — says the tragedy led him into a life of crime.

The man who ripped off sex worker Jenny Hayes, prompting her to set the deadly fire that killed a couple and their newborn, has blamed the tragedy for turning to a life of crime.

A week after Hayes was sentenced in the Supreme Court for killing Abbey Forrest, 19, Inderpal “Indi” Sohal, 28, and their 19-day-old daughter Ivy, Aakash Aakash fronted the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court for his own violent offending.

The Herald Sun can reveal the 24-year-old, who now resides in Burwood, was sentenced on Thursday after admitting brutally attacking two work colleagues, by wielding a tyre lever and throwing a series of uppercut punches.

On November 16, 2021 — almost a year on from the fatal Point Cook fire — Aakash was working in Clayton as a delivery driver when a colleague pulled him up for speeding in the loading bay at 5.30am.

Abbey Forrest, Indi Sohal and their daughter Ivy died in the Point Cook blaze. Pictures: Supplied

Jenny Hayes was sentenced to a minimum of 8 years behind bars. Picture: Supplied

Aakash exited his van and responded by repeatedly punching the man in the head.

His victim was so shocked by the assault, he pleaded with Aakash and asked: “Why are we fighting?”

Aakash then grabbed a tyre iron and struck his victim to the leg.

When other colleagues intervened, he also lashed out.

The court heard Aakash, who was also earning money through Airtasker, stole a Koala lounge in January last year from the person who was patiently waiting for him to deliver it.

Defence lawyer Martin Kozlowski said Aakash had been suffering from untreated trauma since losing his friends in the fire on December 2, 2020.

“He blames himself for what has happened,” Mr Kozlowski said.

“There are mental health issues.”

Mr Kozlowski said Aakash was so close with Indi, having met him through work, that he was meant to become Ivy’s godfather.

Aakash Aakash ripped off sex worker Jenny Hayes. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

It was Indi who let Aakash crash at the house when he needed, with Aakash messaging him to use the downstairs bedroom where he engaged Hayes’ sexual services on the night they were killed.

Hayes ignited the mattress in the bedroom after Aakash took his $180 back from her purse and fled when she refused to have sex with him a second time.

The family were asleep in the upstairs bedroom, where they were found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning.

But Aakash’s criminal ways began before that ill-fated night.

His latest brutish offending happened while he was on a Community Correction Order for dishonesty and theft offences he committed just weeks before his encounter with Hayes.

In early November 2020, he made false reports to police that his car had been stolen, and then attempted to obtain financial advantage by deception by claiming $10,000 insurance from AAMI.

He also stole bottles of booze from Dan Murphys, and crashed his car into a parked car.

Aakash pleaded guilty to a series of offences, including recklessly cause injury, unlawful assault, theft and breaching a CCO.

Magistrate Rose Falla said Aakash was going the wrong way about things for someone who had come to Australia from India for a better life.

Drone photographs of the damage to the Point Cook townhouse.

She said the attack on his colleagues was serious offending, and while it could be “emotional stress” from the loss of his friends that “enraged him” to act in the way that he did, she had no psychological evidence to back that up.

“Your trauma might offer an explanation, but it’s not an excuse,” Ms Falla said.

Ms Falla convicted him and ordered he complete an 18-month Community Correction Order, which would include regular drug testing and 100 hours of unpaid community work.

She cancelled the previous CCO he had been placed on for dishonesty and theft offences, resentencing him to a $1000 fine.

“This is that wake up call you need, Mr Aakash,” Ms Falla said.

“This is your opportunity to make amends.”

In sentencing Hayes to 13 years, with a non-parole period of eight years, Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth also took aim at Aakash, saying she found his version of events the night his friends were killed “to be self-serving and unconvincing”.

“By the time Mr Aakash spoke to the police, and later gave evidence, he knew that his friends had died after he had driven away, leaving an angry stranger at their unlocked home in the middle of the night,” Justice Hollingworth said.

“He had blocked (Hayes’s) messages, and simply driven away from the mess that he had created.”