Melbourne men guilty of Croatia rape escape Australia's justice system with $30,000 payment to victim
There are calls for three Melbourne men who pleaded guilty to raping a woman in Croatia to be placed on the Victoria’s Sex Offenders Register.
The holidaying trio avoided jail in the European country by paying their victim $30,000.
Now the young men are home free.
The Croatian city of Split was just another stop in a European holiday for the group of mates from Melbourne.
Among them were Ashwin Kumar, Waleed Latif, and Dylan Djohan who wrote online that his purpose was to "bed heavenly blessed beauties".
In July last year they met a 17-year-old Norwegian tourist at the Tropic nightclub.
They drank together, then raped her in a toilet.
As part of a deal last week to get a good behaviour bond, they pleaded guilty and paid her $31,000 Australian Dollars.
The agreement has angered victims advocates in Australia.
“If you actually have money and you're wealthy you can actually quite clearly get away with doing some very dangerous and bad things in Croatia,” Carolyn Worth from Centres Against Sexual Assault said.
The men are thought to be back in Melbourne but they've returned as virtual clean skins.
Their convictions in Croatia won't show up in the Australian justice system and they won't be placed on our Sex Offenders Register.
“It's outrageous for victims to think that somebody can commit a gang rape and then, because they have enough money to actually pay the victim, that they can come back here and just appear to be young men who had a very lovely holiday overseas,” Ms Worth said.
Lawyer David Galbally said if the men were to commit similar crimes in Australia, this episode may not be considered in court.
“Of course it's appalling to think that someone who could … come back here, commit similar offences, and then when being sentenced, have the earlier convictions not brought to the attention of the court,” he said.
