A Burmese refugee has been jailed for sexually assaulting a woman in the underground carpark of a Canberra hotel, in an attack so brutal his victim “thought it had turned from a violent rape into a murder”.
Lal Ro Puia, 31, pleaded guilty to sexual assault in the second degree and burglary over the November 2025 assault, and on Tuesday was sentenced by ACT Supreme Court Justice Andrew Muller to five years’ jail with a non-parole period of two years and nine months.
Puia came to Australia when he was 13, has a long history of sexual and other offending in the ACT, NSW, and Victoria, has been on the disability pension for the past 10 years for mental health issues including schizophrenia, and was released from prison for previous crimes just three months before the attack.
The court heard the woman had travelled to Canberra to collect one of her sons from university, and after checking into the five-star Avenue Hotel drove her car into the lower level parking lot, where she saw Puia, a stranger, directing her down the ramp.
She then drove inside, unaware that Puia was following her, and when she got out of her car was shocked to see him standing in front of her. He asked for money or food and a hug, before pushing her to the ground, attempting to undress her, and repeatedly slamming her head into the concrete.
The woman fought back and stabbed Puia with her car keys as he tried to remove his pants, and the judge noted Puia then stopped the attack “without explanation” and left the scene. The woman then called Triple-Zero.
In a victim impact statement the woman said she had been subjected to a “ferocious, premeditated, vicious and beast-like attack”, thought she was being murdered, and called Puia an “evil predator” who made her feel like a “piece of meat on a rotisserie”, The Canberra Times reported.
Justice Muller noted in sentencing that psychiatrists warned Puia posed a “significant risk to the community if he does not address illicit substance use or submit to continuing mental health treatment”, and had shown “a pattern of increasing frequency of sexual offending”.
But he then gave Puia a 25% discount for his early guilty plea, and said that after balancing the need for community protection with “the goal of positive management of Mr Puia’s mental health”, he had decided on a “lengthy period of supervision in the community”.
“I believe that offers the most likely path for Mr Puia to reach a point where he no longer presents as a threat to women,” he said.
“In coming to that view, I am mindful of the words of his victim when she said, ‘My hope is that no other person experiences such a predator, and that the public are assured of safety and support within the community’.”
Puia will be eligible for release in August 2028.
Header image: The entrance to The Avenue Hotel carpark (Google Maps).
