'When you are lying, you destroy lives': Parents of man who pleaded guilty to raping teenager in Croatian club toilet defend their son
The father of one of the Australian men who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a teen in a Croatian nightclub toilet says his son has done nothing wrong.
Dylan Djohan, 23, Ashwin Kumar, 23, and Waleed Latif, 21, pleaded guilty to raping a 17-year-old Norwegian girl on July 16 last year at a nightclub in Split, Croatia.
The trio then paid the victim $31,594 to avoid a 15-year jail sentence as part of a deal with prosecutors and a good behaviour bond.
The group returned to Melbourne on Sunday and have faced plenty of public backlash since news of the incident surfaced.
Mr Latif's father Hamed Latif, who lives in Melbourne's south-western suburbs told Daily Mail: "When you do nothing, you are perfect, when you are lying, you destroy lives."
The father added that the three men, who have all shut down their social media accounts, were thinking of suing media outlets for reporting on the court case.
Croatian nightclub manager defends Australian trio who raped backpacker in toilet
Trio charged with gang-rape pay victim’s family $30,000 to escape jail
Tropic nightclub manager Boris Nikolic, where the crime is said to have happened, claims the three men were forced into a confession and he believed it was ‘impossible’ for anyone to be raped in the men’s toilet without anyone noticing.
“(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 told Daily Mail.
“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 admitted he was not working at the nightclub at the time of the incident but said his 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.
Friends of the men have taken to social media to defend them and denigrate the victim, with one calling the girl a "s***t".
