Nightclub rapist jailed for three years

Luke Lazarus had a privileged upbringing and the world at his feet. But now, the son of a Sydney nightclub boss has been jailed for three years for rape.

Luke Lazarus

The son of a Sydney nightclub boss was found guilty in 2015 of raping Saxon Mullins, but the verdict was overturned in 2017. Source: AAP

Convicted rapist Luke Lazarus admits he had an inflated sense of power and entitlement when he was at his father's Kings Cross nightclub.

So when he saw an 18-year-old woman he liked the look of early on May 12, 2013, he walked over to her and bragged he was a part-owner of the Sydney venue.

"In Soho I had more confidence than any other place," he said.

The teenager, meanwhile, was a virgin and had never been to Kings Cross before.

Judge Sarah Huggett found this power imbalance led to the scared teen - minutes after meeting Lazarus - to comply with his directions to kneel on gravel in an alleyway at the back of Soho.

There, surrounded by a car park and brothels, the girl was anally raped by Lazarus.

Lazarus was reckless, "not caring in one way or another whether she was consenting", Judge Huggett told the Sydney District Court on Friday.

When the assault was over, Lazarus told the teen to add her name to a list of conquests he kept.

While Justice Huggett found the teen had consented to kissing Lazarus, he had ignored her right - expressed a number of times - to return to her friend.

He put his head in his hands on Friday as he was sentenced to at least three years in prison and placed in custody for the first time.

His mother, Denise, moaned from the gallery.

The court heard Lazarus came from a privileged upbringing, living with his family in the exclusive suburb of Vaucluse and attending elite private school Cranbrook.

By the time he graduated from the University of Technology, Sydney, he had a marketing position at Lion, the beverage and food company.

"I had the world at my feet," Lazarus told the court on Thursday. "I could have been CEO."

Then came the trial.

But even at this point Lazarus' parents, who own the Soho as well as The Eastern in Bondi Junction, had managed to keep the matter quiet from family and friends.

It was not until weeks after the verdict that news of the case broke, and the 23-year-old says his life was destroyed.

In a character reference tendered to court, Lazarus' father, Andrew, said: "It was our intention and hope the incident could remain quiet to protect Luke's good reputation ... I didn't even inform my mother and sisters."

He said the family would be selling out of the Soho venue, as the nightclub had suffered from a "major backlash".

A number of other references were tendered on Lazarus's behalf, including from South Sydney Rabbitohs chairman Dr Nick Pappas, consulate-general of Greece in Queensland Tsambico Athanasas and Waverley mayor Sally Betts.

All described the young man as generous, polite and gentle.

Judge Huggett said Lazarus had good prospects of rehabilitation.

He will be eligible for release in March 2018.


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Source: AAP


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