Balesh Dhankhar is said to have drugged and raped five young women

A former ABC contractor is accused of luring five young Korean women with a fake job ad before drugging them and raping them in front of a camera hidden in a clock.

Balesh Dhankhar is on trial on 39 charges, including 13 counts of rape, allegedly committed between January and October 2018.

A jury heard he had a “very specific modus operandi” to seduce and rape the women – using the same hotel, cafe and Korean restaurant for almost all of the rapes.

Prosecutors alleged that he spiked glasses of wine and other beverages with pills of the sleeping drug Stilnox or the notorious rape drug Rohypnol.

Balesh Dhankhar is accused of luring five young Korean women with a fake job advertisement before drugging them and raping them on camera while hiding them in a watch.

A jury heard he had a “very specific modus operandi” to seduce and rape the women – using the same hotel, cafe and Korean restaurant for almost all of the rapes

While they were unconscious, he allegedly raped her several times at his studio apartment in the World Square complex in Sydney’s CBD.

Dhankhar is said to have recorded the rapes with a camera hidden in a watch he bought on eBay or on his mobile phone, which police seized.

A detailed spreadsheet discovered by police allegedly contained encrypted notes about each of his victims, with a column labeled “Action” describing how far the sexual activity went – those he’s accused of raping found himself on “fourth base”.

He was arrested on October 21, 2018 after the fifth woman allegedly woke up while he was raping her and has spent the last more than four years fighting charges, trying unsuccessfully to suppress his name.

The “senior data visualization consultant” worked for Sydney Trains during all of the alleged rape allegations and was hired by Pfizer and ABC on one-year contracts while on bail from 2019 to 2021.

Dhankhar has pleaded not guilty, claiming all five women consented to sex and filming, and is in the midst of a lengthy trial in NSW District Court.

The fourth of his alleged victims bravely told her story in court on Wednesday, claiming she woke up naked on his bed during the rape.

“He was going on when I woke up and I said can you stop, I thought we were just friends,” she told the court.

“I remember he started crying and told him I wanted to go home… he tried to reassure me, ‘It’s fine, don’t cry, you’re fine…’

The court heard that Dhankhar had set up a fake company called The Asia Partnership, named after a real company he used to work for – but unbeknownst to them.

In late 2017 and into 2018, he posted job ads for a Korean-English translator on Gumtree to attract the women, all of whom are in their mid-20s.

The woman, whose name cannot be released, responded to the ad the day after she arrived in Australia on October 8, 2018 and met Dhankhar at the Hilton three days later.

She said he invited her to dinner, but she declined, but met him at a cafe the next day, where he gave her a document to translate.

This time she accepted his invitation to dinner and they went to Koibito, a nearby Korean restaurant, and shared a bottle or two of soju.

The woman said she felt good after the restaurant and back in Korea she used to drink regularly with her friends where she was able to down three bottles alone and only felt tipsy.

Prosecutor Kate Nightingale told jurors that all five of Dhankhar’s alleged rapes followed almost exactly the same pattern.

After they responded, he set up an interview at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney’s CBD, where he asked them about their lives and gave them information about the “job”.

Dhankhar is said to have recorded the rapes with a camera hidden in a watch he bought on eBay or on his mobile phone, which police seized.

Balesh Dhankhar is accused of luring five young Korean women with a fake job advertisement before drugging them and raping them on camera

Dhankhar then invited the women to dinner at Koibito, a nearby Korean restaurant, where they drank soju, wine or the Korean beverage makkoli.

The court heard he allegedly drugged his first known victim there on January 25, 2018, but instead administered the sedative at his home on subsequent occasions.

Ms Nightingale told the jury he convinced them to come to his flat “using various excuses or tricks” such as showing them a good view of the Sydney Opera House.

There’s more to come.

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk