NOTORIOUS gang rapist Bilal Skaf has been jailed for a maximum 31 years over the August 2000 attack on a teenage girl in Sydney's west. Skaf's brother, Mohammed Skaf, who can now be named, has been sentenced to a maximum 15 years over the same pack rape of a 16-year-old girl at Greenacre's Gosling Park. | Be gone with both of them. |
| Not long enough. |
The 24-year-old, who was already serving a maximum of 28 years for other sex offences, smiled briefly as Justice Mathews sentenced him to the 31 years, part of which will be served concurrently. Mohammed, Bilal's younger brother, who is also in jail for other sex offences, was sentenced to a minimum of seven-and-a-half years for his role in the attack.
The then 17-year-old knew the rape victim and drove her to the park, Justice Mathews said. “His involvement in the evening's activities was an absolutely crucial one,” she said. “Without him, the offences would not have been committed at all.”
Outside the court, the victim's mother said she was happy with today's sentence and hoped it would give her daughter some closure. “She'll never forget it but hopefully she'll be able to talk about it,” she said.
Both men were convicted in April this year over the pack rape, which allegedly involved up to 14 men. Bilal Skaf was convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent in company, while Mohammed was found guilty of being an accessary before the fact.
It was the second time the two were found guilty, after their initial conviction was quashed in 2004 when it was revealed two jurors conducted their own investigations at the rape scene. The actions of the jurors in the original trial prompted the New South Wales Government to make it illegal for any juror to conduct private investigations outside court. It also led to a law allowing sexual victims to avoid giving evidence at retrials, instead testifying via transcript or video.
In what was believed to be the first time the new evidence laws were used, the gang rape victim was not required to be in court for the Skaf retrial, and her transcript evidence from the previous trial was re-enacted for the jurors.