A 39-year-old Indian man, Sumit Satish Rastogi, has been sentenced to 13 years and 10 months in prison in Adelaide, Australia, after pleading guilty to 97 offences involving 61 victims. The charges included multiple counts of aggravated indecent assault and indecent filming.
Details of the Crimes
Rastogi, who was working at a massage parlor without proper qualifications, committed the offences between October 2021 and July 2022, when he was arrested. According to ABC News, Judge Carmen Matteo outlined each of the 97 offences during sentencing, stating, "In one way or another, you violated 61 women who were trusting, unsuspecting and entitled to safety, respect and dignity."
Judge Matteo emphasized the breach of trust: "You abused their trust and treated them with an utter lack of respect and dignity when you touched them sexually and or took images which intentionally captured parts of their body which was their right to keep private and unexposed." She described his conduct as "regular and, at times, prolific."
Escalation of Offending Behaviour
The judge noted that Rastogi's offences worsened as he grew more confident in filming women. "All of your conduct in indecently assaulting your victims was serious, but it became particularly so once you developed confidence to unjustifiably interfere with their underwear to access them directly," she said. "Every invasive image you took involved a gross breach of trust and was entirely unacceptably exploitative, and when you couple that conduct with physical sexual interference, your conduct took on another level of depravity and insult to your victims."
By June and July 2022, Judge Matteo characterized his offending as "out of control and showing no signs of restraint until the moment you got caught."
Psychiatric Diagnosis and Sentencing
The court considered a psychiatric diagnosis that Rastogi had voyeuristic disorder. The judge explained, "He is of the opinion you meet the diagnostic criteria for voyeuristic disorder because over a period of six months you experienced concurrent and intense sexual arousal from observing unsuspecting semi-naked women." However, she added, "[He] says that your voyeuristic disorder is a clinically plausible explanation for your offending behaviour but that it does not absolve you of responsibility for your conduct. There is no suggestion that you were unable to control your conduct or that you did not know the wrongfulness of it."
Deportation After Sentence
Rastogi will be deported from Australia once he has served his full sentence.
