A Perth dentist who spiked the drinks of multiple young women he met online before raping them will spend over a decade behind bars.
Farzem Mehrabi, 34, who was found guilty of 24 charges in September, was sentenced to 15 years in prison with a non-parole period of 13 years in Perth District Court on Tuesday.
His sentencing followed a four-week trial in which the court heard evidence that he had committed more than 20 offences against six women aged between 18 and 22 who he had met on dating apps in 2022.
Mehrabi strongly denied the accusations despite being caught on CCTV spiking one of his victim’s water glass with MDMA and methamphetamine.
Seven women made complaints about Mehrabi who was found guilty of rape, indecent assault, strangulation, stupefying and supplying a prohibited drug.
The court heard Mehrabi had lied to the women about his age and living situation, telling them he was 24-years-old instead of 31 and lived with an older couple who were family friends, when he actually lived with his parents.
Judge Troy Sweeney said the CCTV footage of Mehrabi spiking a drink was ‘damning’ and a clear example of how ’emboldened’ he had become.
‘As a good looking, educated, up-and-coming dentist, soon to be surgeon, you believed you were entitled to live this way,’ Judge Sweeney said in her judgement.
The woman who was captured being spiked on CCTV was the first to bring accusations against the dentist.
While the pair were travelling home in his Jaguar the woman became panicked as the effects of the drugs started kicking in and jumped out of the car to seek help from nearby security guards.
Another woman recalled waking up in Mehrabi’s bed one morning with no recollection of the night before despite only having four drinks, the court heard.
She found bruises, scratches and abrasions on her body and marks around her neck.
Others said they drank alcohol in Mehrabi’s backyard and began feeling nauseous with hair tests revealing some had unknowingly consumed MDMA.
‘It shows a complete lack of respect and a complete willingness to manipulate and control another person,’ Judge Sweeney said.
‘Each of the victims who ended up back at your house intoxicated and affected by drugs, whether consumed voluntarily or unknowingly, was thereby rendered vulnerable because they were at your home in a state in which their judgment and their physical independence was completely compromised, and that was deliberate on your part.’
Mehrabi was a third-year medical student at Notre Dame University studying to become a surgeon at the time of his offending.
Judge Sweeney said Mehrabi was ’embarrassed’ that he was living with his parents at their home in Shelley in Perth’s south so he painted himself as ‘successful, professional, well-heeled, polished and interesting’.
She said Mehrabi’s actions had become so ‘self absorbed’ that he didn’t stop his offending even after two of his victims showed clear signs of distress.
‘[That] didn’t temper your behaviour, because you were all about you and your needs,’ the judge said.
‘You did deceive the young women to whom you surreptitiously gave MDMA in a highly controlling move on your part and with no regard for them.’
Seven women made complaints about Mehrabi and he was found guilty of sexual assault charges against five of them along with other drugs charges and a count of impending a person’s breathing by applying pressure to the neck.
He was cleared of one drink spiking charge.
Mehrabi testified the drug use and sex was consensual but the jury found him to be an unreliable witness with a history of telling lies, including about his age, height and whether he lived with his parents on the dating apps.