Croatian nightclub manager defends Australian trio who raped backpacker in toilet
The manager of a Croatian nightclub where three Australian men sexually assaulted a backpacker claims the trio were forced into a confession.
Dylan Djohan, 23, Ashwin Kumar, 23, and Waleed Latif, 21, pleaded guilty to raping the teen on July 16 at a nightclub in Split, Croatia.
The trio then paid the victim $31,594 to avoid jail time as part of a deal with prosecutors.
They returned to Melbourne on Sunday and have faced plenty of public backlash since news of the incident surfaced.
However owner of the Tropic nightclub, Boris Nikolic, has since told The Daily Mail he believed it was ‘impossible’ for anyone to be raped in the men’s toilet without anyone noticing the crime taking place.
“(The toilet) is next to the door, it's next to the warehouse and it is next to our office. There is no music there, or in the hallway,” Mr Nikolic said.
“I believe it is impossible to do something in that part of the club and nobody to hear. It is very strange. Me personally, I think it never happened. Maybe the girl was trying to get money.
“I think they were forced to (confess). But we do not know it.”
Mr Nikolic was not working at the nightclub at the time of the incident.
However he claims staff were told of the attack was when police showed up at 6am the following morning.
He said no one had asked for help or noticed anything the night of the attack.
The venue sits above a ‘gentleman’s club’ which overlooks a nearby beach.
It opens from 10pm until 5am each night during the summer and draws up to 300 people.
Before 1am, when the organised pub-crawls wrap up in the city, there can be as few as 20 people in the venue.
“In the club at that time someone would have heard it. There were lots of waiters, lots of hostesses. When a bottle breaks, someone knows,” Mr Nikolic said.
“At that time, the music was not loud. There is no point to pump the music up when there is an empty club.
“So how can someone not hear such a thing as rape?”
Mr Nikolic told The Daily Mail the club was never contacted again after that night.
“No one investigated like this,” he said.
He claimed in his 15 years helping to run clubs in the area he had only had small problems such as people ‘drinking too much’.
Friends of the men have taken to social media to defend them and denigrate the victim, with one calling the girl a "s***t".
A post on the Herald Sun website by one of their supporters blamed the teenage victim for the rape, saying "it's called being a s***t."
"She knew what she was getting herself into....Extortion is the word. #istandwiththeboys (sic)," they wrote.
The post received 20 likes within an hour while another supporter commented the trio were "The 3 best blokes and most genuine people you would ever meet."
The trio have consistently shared social media photos which show them working out in gyms getting 'jacked as f***k' and posing shirtless.
Djohan had thousands of Instagram followers before he deleted his account.
He used to regularly boast about his body building efforts and documented his regime while he was on holiday in Europe last July.
While on holiday, he would ‘shred’ his chest and torso in training for six days before doing some light cardio like ‘beach volleyball with bikini babes’, according to The Age.
His ideal cheat meal was three burgers and a thickshake.
”It used to be about getting shredded for the females, but these days it's all about building and becoming the best version of myself possible... Also females,” Djohan wrote on social media.
All of the men have deleted their social media accounts following backlash online since it was revealed they had returned home to Melbourne.
Djohan's Instagram heavily promoted his lifestyle.
“4 days into my Adonis shred and these cuts are coming in deeper than the Baltic seas,” he wrote previously on Instagram.
“My gift from the gods was this blessed block of heathen marble... My curse from the gods is that I must sculpt it with my bare hands.”
“Pick up a dumbbell and join me in Valhalla!” Djohan wrote online.
“Summer's over but the glow of the gods remains with the aesthetic ones.
“Wellllll mate... you don't work hard as f*** for years to buy a Ferrari and then keep it hidden away in the garage do ya?”
Days after learning he was free to return home to Australia after Djohan reportedly took to social media to gloat about the idea of joining the ‘mile-high club’ with a flight attendant.
He also wrote alongside a photo of himself that he had an epiphany and was told by a 'soft voice' that his purpose was to 'bed heavenly blessed beauties'.
The men initially faced 15 years in jail if they did not strike up a deal between their lawyers and Croatian prosecutors.
It’s believed the men returned home on Sunday after spending close to seven months in Croatia awaiting trial.
Police seized their passports in July 2015 after the 17-year-old told police the trio had tried to gang rape her in the toilet of the Tropic nightclub in Split at about 1.30am on July 16.
The court heard the men had been drinking at the beachside nightspot when one of them forcibly led the teen into the men’s bathroom.
The other two then joined them and started assaulting her.
The girl managed to fight the three off but not before forensic evidence was left to tie them to the assault.
Three semen samples were found on her clothes.
Two of the accused have since claimed they had consensual sex with the woman and the other denies any interaction with her.
News break – February 7
