An Indian immigrant has been spared jail for sexually assaulting more than a dozen women over three nights at a Melbourne’s Revolver Upstairs nightclub.
David Maria Anthony Rayan, 34, who was an IT analyst at Big Four accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers at the time of the groping spree, was on Monday given a two-year community corrections order in the Victorian County Court, including 180 hours of unpaid community work.
The order made by Judge Peter Rozen, who was appointed in 2022 under the Dan Andrews Labor government, requires Rayan to attend programs for alcohol abuse and to combat reoffending, inform Corrections Victoria if he changes jobs or moves home, and bans him from leaving the state without permission.
Judge Rozen described Rayan’s offending as “most concerning”, and said that without his late guilty plea, he would have handed down a sentence of six months’ imprisonment, but noted that the assaults all took place over clothing and that the victims were unknown to Rayan, ABC News reported.
He also found that Rayan had a low risk of reoffending as he had no prior convictions or pending charges, and no mental health issues, and described the offending as “out of character”.
The court heard an additional victim impact statement from one of the women Rayan assaulted, who has since moved from Melbourne to Queensland for support coping with the impact of the attack.
“I haven’t been able to maintain any relationships since the assault,” she said.
“This experience has changed me in ways I am still dealing with today.”
Rayan last month pleaded guilty to 17 counts of sexual assault and one count of attempted sexual assault after targeting 18 women at the nightclub in Prahran on September 23, October 14 and October 21 in 2023.
CCTV footage from the nightclub showed Rayan mainly targeting women who were with other men, and Judge Rozen said during his previous court appearance he was lucky not to have been slapped by any of the women or their partners.
Prosecutor Nicholas Donaghy told the court Rayan first denied allegations from two women and lied in police interviews, saying he may have “accidentally” touched them, but CCTV footage then revealed another 16 victims.
“He insisted that flirting with or having sexual contact with anybody other than his wife was against his Christian religion,” Mr Donaghy said.
Rayan’s defence barrister Alexander Patton told the court his client was working as a delivery driver after losing his PwC job and is no longer able to see his three-year-old daughter.
Mr Patton said Rayan had not explained his offending, but said his client was “craving social interaction” after his marriage broke down, and suggested the former IT worker may have been seeking sexual gratification.
It is unclear whether Rayan, who is a permanent resident, will be deported after completing the community corrections order.
Last year it was revealed that magistrates in Victoria are being trained to give immigrants jail sentences of under 12 months in order to avoid triggering federal deportation laws which require the cancellation of visas of non-citizen criminals who have been sentenced to a year or more in prison.
And in 2019 Victoria’s Sentencing Advisory Council looked at how deportation could be used justify lower sentences, finding that deportation may be treated as an additional form of punishment, may cause offenders anxiety, and may reduce prospects of offenders being granted parole.
Header image: Left, right, David Rayan (7 News).
