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The Bilal Skaf Rapes

In August 2000, 18-year-old Bilal Skaf was the leader of a pack of up to 14 Sydney western suburbs teenagers who carried out some of the most violent and abhorrent rapes this country has ever seen. One of the gang members was Bilal Skaf’s 19-year-old brother Mohammed.

The modus operandi was that members of Skaf’s gang would solicit teenage girls and take them to secluded spots and rape them. Then they called up other gang members – who were waiting nearby – on mobile phones to come and join in. One victim allegedly had a gun held to her head and was told she would be killed if she didn’t cooperate.

It was alleged that after Skaf and his gang had finished with their victims they were dumped and threatened with death if they went to the police.

One girl was hosed down as she lay sobbing hysterically after allegedly being repeatedly raped 26 times by 14 youths over a 12-hour period.

Unrepentant throughout his trial ­– during­ which he offered no defence, showed no contrition or remorse and treated as a joke – Skaf was found guilty of being the ringleader in three gang rape cases which included a series of gang rapes in the one night.

Skaf’s individual offences of rape, assisted rape, assault and detainment totaled 23. Cumulatively his sentences came to 280 years. He was sentenced concurrently to 55 years in jail with a minimum non-parole period of 40 years.

In October 2002, Bilal Skaf’s brother, Mohammed, who was 19 at the time, was sentenced to 32 years with a non-parole period of 20 years for his part in the rapes.

In handing down the sentence Justice Michael Finnane said: ‘The offender’s head sentence will conclude on 11 February 2056 and his non-parole period will conclude on 11 February 2040. At this stage he will have been in custody for 40 years. Hopefully he will no longer be a menace to society.’

On remand Bilal Skaf proved to be a difficult inmate. He was immature, uncontrollable and the target of every Lebanese Muslim inmate in the system for bringing disgrace upon his countrymen. Once he was sentenced he was sent straight to the Supermax prison at Goulburn Jail.

But even in there Skaf wasn’t going quietly. It seemed as though he was seldom out of the newspapers for one thing or another. Cartoons drawn by Skaf in prison depicting extreme sexual violence against women, and the pack rape of his former fiancee, were released to the media.

After Skaf’s engagement came to an end while he was in prison, he allegedly sent his ex-fiancee a series of threats which only ended after the woman complained to the Department of Corrective Services.

Skaf’s father, Mr Mustapha Skaf, was banned from visiting his son in jail after he (Mr Skaf) allegedly tried to bribe a prison officer into placing a phone call through to his son. Skaf’s mother was also banned from visiting her son for two years after she allegedly tried to smuggle out correspondence which contained sketches of his cell and exercise yard. Bilal Skaf was banned from receiving visitors for a month over the incident.

When he allegedly sent a white powder-laced letter to Correctional Services Commissioner Ron Woodham, Skaf was charged with ‘sending an article with the intention of inducing another person to falsely believe that the article would explode or be harmful to themselves or property’.

When Skaf was due to appear in Yass Court on the above charge a caller to Goulburn Jail threatened to shoot court staff if Skaf was not released within three days. It was understood that the man said he was from W2K – Willing to Kill – allegedly the same gang which plotted the foiled escape of political assassin Phuong Ngo, who was convicted of the 1994 murder of politician John Newman in Sydney.

On 18 December 2003, in the Downing Central Local Court, the alleged ‘white powder’ charge – which had been reduced to a charge of ‘threatening prison staff’ – against Skaf was dismissed on the grounds that there was no prima facie case to answer due to lack of evidence.

On 6 May 2004, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal overturned the conviction of Bilal Skaf and his brother Mohammed on one of the rapes which allegedly took place at Gosling Park at Greenacre on 12 August 2000.

The court of three appeal judges found that two jury members in the case went to the park where the alleged rape took place at about 8.15 on the night before the verdict was to be heard to check the lighting conditions. This was despite strict instructions by the trial judge ‘not to go and do their own research’.

As a result of these jury members’ actions, the Skaf brothers had their sentences for the Gosling Park rape removed from their overall sentences. Bilal Skaf’s sentence of 55 years was reduced by nine years and Mohammed’s 32-year sentence was reduced by eight years pending the outcome of a retrial to be held later this year [2005].