In India, rape seems to be as much a part of the daily commute as reading the paper is in civilised countries. Not just the horrors that reach the international media, such as the appalling gang-rape and murder of student Jyoti Singh Pandey, but the daily gropings and other harassment. Western women, foolish enough to solo travel in even parts of India that travel agents assure them are ‘safe’, report that being female and alone in public is an instant magnet for crowds of handsy, aggressive men.
Yet, we’re supposed to believe the same men will somehow give up their creepy ways by the simple magic of transplanting them to Australia?
A serial groper who sexually assaulted 17 women and attempted to sexually assault another at a Melbourne nightclub has avoided jail time.
David Maria Anthony Rayan, 34, was facing up to 10 years in prison for the sexual assaults, which took place at Revolver nightclub on Chapel Street, Prahran, over three nights in late-2023.
The ABC being the ABC, they neither tell us the pervert’s real name, David Arokiaraj Maria Anthony Rayan (a Tamil surname), or that he is an Indian immigrant.
Mr Rayan’s actions while in the club, which involved repeatedly touching women’s buttocks and waists, often in front of their partners, kissing their shoulders, and making other unwanted advances.
The offending occurred on September 23, October 14 and October 21, 2023.
It often took place over a few hours and was against women aged between 18 and 48.
Judge Peter Rozen noted that Rayan had a concerning “lack of insight” into his wrongdoing. Prosecutors pointed out that Rayan lied in police interviews and denied the allegations, despite CCTV footage revealing 17 victims. Yet, despite describing his offending as “brazen”, and the scale of his offending as “most concerning”, the judge declined to hand down a custodial sentence.
If you find that troubling, you haven’t been paying attention to how the legal apparatus operates in Victoria. Judges are literally coached to hand down light sentences to foreign criminals, to avoid triggering federal deportation laws.
Federal immigration law allows the government to deport non-Australian criminals if they have been in the country for less than 10 years and have received a sentence of more than one year in prison.
One hypothetical example given to Victorian magistrates involved a Vietnamese student who had just arrived in Australia and had sexually assaulted an eight-year-old girl multiple times.
Magistrates were advised to sentence the accused to 11 months and 15 days in prison so that he would not be deported at the end of his sentence, according to the Herald Sun.
In Rayan’s case, it’s working, with, it should surprise absolutely no one, the active collusion of tilty-head bureaucrats who care more about foreign predators than innocent Australian women and children.
Judge Rozen handed the serial groper a two-year community corrections order: 180 hours of unpaid work and assorted conditions. No prison.
Amazingly, though, his visa was later cancelled on character grounds. Cue the Administrative Review Tribunal. In December 2025, it set the cancellation aside under Tony Burke’s Ministerial Direction 110, leaning hard on the “best interests” of Rayan’s three-year-old Australian daughter. Never mind the intervention order that already stops him contacting the child and never mind the tribunal’s own observation that he has made little effort to see her. The panel still decided deportation would “negatively affect her” and that she would benefit more from his physical presence than from video calls. His mental health, depression and anxiety therapy also weighed in his favour – despite the sentencing judge having recorded a psychologist’s finding of no mental ill-health.
So the man who treated a Melbourne nightclub as his personal hunting ground keeps his visa, loses the IT job and now drives Ubers.
Because a serial sex offender working as an Uber driver isn’t something to be concerned about at all.
It’s a wonder he hasn’t been given a job in a childcare centre.
