A Bangladeshi night prowler has been jailed for at least 4.5 years for sexually assaulting a teenage girl and attacking an elderly woman in their Melbourne homes.
Warehouse worker Zarif Sarker, 33, was thrown out of the Commercial Hotel in Werribee for sexually harassing women on December 6 last year, and told a friend “tonight is going to be my night” before trying to break into at least 16 homes in Wyndham Vale, including on the street where he lived.
Finding one door unlocked, he crept inside and crawled into a bed where a girl, 17, was asleep, telling her “it’s all right, you’ll be fine” when she woke to him hugging her, The Herald Sun reported.
Sarker touched her breasts, kissed her, and tried to undress her while pinning her by her wrists, but she managed to fight him off and he was chased out of the house by the girl’s grandmother, only to return two minutes later to ask for his shoes back, and then continue his crime spree.
After trying more homes he found another door unlocked, walked past a sleeping man and found a sleeping 63-year-old woman who screamed when she woke to him breathing on her face. She managed to break free and her husband then ejected him from the house.
Sarker pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated burglary, as well as one count each of sexual assault, common assault and trespass, and was sentenced in the County Court of Victoria on Wednesday to six years and nine months’ jail with a 4.5-year non-parole period by Judge Michael Tinney.
“This is terrifying offending – it’s probably every woman’s worst nightmare,” Judge Tinney said.
“You were drifting around the neighbourhood with sex clearly on your mind. This was pretty outrageous and serious criminal conduct and I must denounce it in strong terms – and I do. I plainly must protect the community from you.”
Judge Tinney noted that Sarker’s victims were deeply impacted, and rejected claims the attacker was intoxicated, had little memory of the night, and was trying to find his own house.
“I am well satisfied that you remember far more than you appear to admit. Given what you had been doing and saying earlier in the night … there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that you intended to sexually assault a woman. Being kicked out of the hotel did not quench that desire. Neither did going from house to house.” he said.
Bangladesh-born Sarker was previously jailed for six months in Queensland for sexually assaulting his housemate, and the court previously heard there was a warrant out for his arrest in Western Australia over an alleged sexual assault at a Perth casino.
Header image: Left, right, Sarker caught on CCTV during his crime spree (supplied).
The post Bangladeshi sex predator jailed for attacking girl, 17, and woman, 63, in Melbourne first appeared on The Noticer.
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