A former ABC contractor is accused of luring five young Korean women with a fake job ad before drugging and raping them on a camera hidden in a clock.
Balesh Dhankhar is on trial for 39 charges including 13 counts of rape allegedly committed between January and October 2018.
A jury heard he had a ‘very specific modus operandi’ to ensnare and rape the women – using the same hotel, café, and Korean restaurant in almost all the rapes.
Prosecutors alleged he spiked glasses of wine and other drinks with tablets of the sleeping drug Stilnox or infamous date-rape drug rohypnol.
Balesh Dhankhar is accused of luring five young Korean women with a fake job ad before drugging and raping them on camera hidden in a clock .
A jury heard he had a ‘very specific modus operandi’ to ensnare and rape the women – using the same hotel, café, and Korean restaurant in almost all the rapes
When they were unconscious, he allegedly raped them multiple times at his studio apartment in the World Square complex in the Sydney CBD.
Dhankhar allegedly recorded the rapes on a camera hidden in a clock he bought on eBay, or on his mobile phone, which were recovered by police.
A detailed spreadsheet discovered by police allegedly kept coded notes about each of his victims, with a column labelled ‘action’ describing how far the sexual activity went – those he is accused of raping were at ‘fourth base’.
He was arrested on October 21, 2018, after the fifth woman allegedly woke up while he was raping her, and sent messages to a friend while hiding in the bathroom.
Dhankhar has spent the past more than four years fighting the charges, unsuccessfully trying to have his name suppressed.
The ‘lead data visualisation consultant’ worked for Sydney Trains during all the alleged rapes, and was hired by Pfizer and the ABC for one-year contracts while on bail in 2019 to 2021.
Dhankhar pleaded not guilty, claiming all five women consented to sex, and to being filmed, and is in the middle of a lengthy trial in the NSW District Court.
The fourth of his alleged victims bravely told her story in court on Wednesday, claiming she woke up naked on his bed while she was being raped.
‘He kept doing it when I woke up and I said can you stop, I thought we were just friends,’ she told the court.
‘I remember is started to cry and told him I wanted to go home… he was trying to soothe me down “it’s ok, don’t cry, you’re ok…'”
The court heard Dhankhar created a fake company called The Asia Partnership, named after a real firm he used to work for – but without their knowledge.
He posted job ads on Gumtree for a Korean to English translator in late 2017 and through 2018 to lure in the women, all aged in their mid-20s.
The woman, who can’t be named, responded to the ad a day after arriving in Australia on October 8, 2018, and met Dhankhar at the Hilton three days later.
She said he asked her to dinner but she declined, but met up with him at a café the next day, where he gave her a document to translate.
This time she accepted his dinner invitation and they went to Koibito, a Korean restaurant nearby, and split one or two bottles of soju.
The woman said she felt fine after the restaurant and back in Korea she regularly drank with her friends where she could down three bottles by herself and only feel tipsy.
Dhankhar offered her a list home from Koibito
Prosecutor Kate Nightingale told the jury how all five of Dhankhar’s alleged rapes followed almost exactly the same pattern.
After they responded, he set up an interview at the Hilton Hotel in the Sydney CBD, where he asked them about their lives and gave them information about the ‘job’.
Dhankhar allegedly recorded the rapes on a camera hidden in a clock he bought on eBay, or on his mobile phone, which were recovered by police.
Balesh Dhankhar is accused of luring five young Korean women with a fake job ad before drugging and raping them on camera
Dhankhar then invited the women to dinner at Koibito, a nearby Korean restaurant, where they drank soju, wine, or Korean drink makkoli.
The court heard he allegedly drugged his first known victim there on January 25, 2018, but on future occasions administered the sedative at his home instead.
Ms Nightingale told the jury he convinced them to come to his flat ‘using a variety of excuses or ruses’ such as showing them a good view of the Sydney Opera House.
More to come.
