A Perth dentist has been jailed for 15 years after sexually assaulting six women whose drinks he spiked after meeting them on dating apps.
Farzam Mehrabi, 34, met the women, all aged between 18 and 20, in various Perth bars before inviting them back to his parents’ house in Shelley.
Farzam Mehrabi drugged and raped several young women.Credit: 9News Perth
Multiple women came forward claiming he had sexually assaulted and drugged them after meeting them on dating apps Tinder and Bumble. The incidents all occurred over a two-month period in 2022.
Mehrabi, then aged 31, mixed a cocktail of drugs including MDMA, MDA, lorazepam and methamphetamine into drinks he bought or made for the women before engaging in rough non-consensual sex.
The qualified dentist – who was born in Iran and moved to Australia as a child – was at the time also a third-year medical student at Notre Dame University, studying to become a surgeon.
Seven women in total made complaints to police, leading to 25 charges against Mehrabi, including sexual penetration without consent, unlawful and indecent assault, impeding another person’s breathing by applying pressure to the neck, offering to sell and supply drugs, supplying a prohibited drug, and stupefying in order to commit an indictable offence.
During his sentencing on Tuesday, the Perth District Court was told Mehrabi lied about his age, stating he was 24 when matching with the women online before allegedly engaging in conversations about his drug use during the dates.
Mehrabi then spiked the women’s drinks either at the bars or at his house, and plied them with alcohol. Some of the victims testified during the trial they were so intoxicated they vomited and drifted in and out of consciousness.
“I’m a gentleman, what can I say?”, Mehrabi told a 22-year-old woman in a bar as they were discussing sex on a first date.
He tried to convince her that was not what he was looking for – but moments later, as she went to the bathroom, he was caught on CCTV putting MDMA into her glass of water.
The woman got into Mehrabi’s black Jaguar after he offered to show her his newly renovated garden, but as the effects of the drug kicked in, she panicked and jumped out at a set of lights, where she sought the help of nearby Transperth staff.
They called an ambulance and police, who later released information about the incident to the media, asking other victims to come forward.
Six other women did.
Each had a slightly different story. Some were strangled; some had sex willingly on one or two occasions, before Mehrabi forced himself on them at other times. None consented to taking drugs, and all were left humiliated, frightened and emotionally scarred.
Judge Troy Sweeney told Mehrabi he had an “enormous sense of entitlement”, and that it was “extraordinary” someone with his education and profession would commit such offences.
She said Mehrabi was motivated by power and control, and lacked empathy and insight.
Mehrabi’s defence lawyer Simon Freitag told the court the dentist’s offending had been “devastating on both sides” and, while Mehrabi conceded there had been “significant and lasting” impact on his victims, the impact on his family had also been extensive.
“The ripple of this sort of offending can’t be underestimated,” Freitag said.
The 34-year-old was sentenced to 15 years in prison in total for all of his offending and will not be eligible for release until he has served at least 13 years.
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