It was the early 2000s when a series of carefully planned gang rapes rocked Sydney. Dubbed the ‘Skaf’ trials, after the group’s instigator Bilal Skaf, the sexual assaults made headline news.
Michael Finnane presided over the trials with little knowledge the case would define his career.
There were three major incidents, involving a group of young men - some in their teens - luring, raping, and coordinating with other groups of men to perform further assaults on four girls.
“No one knows what their motivation was.”
“They used mobile phone technology to organise the rape so one group would find them, rape them and then ring up and another group would turn up,” recounts Mr Finnane.
An image that’s stuck in the judge’s mind is of one victim, who was raped dozens of times, during her cross-examination.
“[She] had a little sort of doll in her hand with a rag around it and she clutched it tightly,” says Mr Finnane.
“She was obviously finding it very tense and very troubling but she stuck to [her account].”
In August 2002, Michael Finnane sentenced Bilal Skaf to 55 years jail with a 40-year non-parole period. The sentence was reduced on appeal.
More than 15 years later, Mr Finnane still doesn’t understand what was behind the crimes.
“No one knows what their motivation was.”
Catch up on Insight’s episode, Rape on Trial, here:
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