A MAN who committed indecent acts on a nine-year-old girl after luring her into a change room at Myer Chadstone has been sentenced to two years' jail.
Mohammad Sehnawaz Khan, 31, an Indian, was in Australia on a bogus student visa when he approached the girl and her sister, 8, in the department store's toy section on March 14, the County Court heard yesterday.
He asked the girl to try on clothes that he claimed he wanted to send to his niece in India. She initially refused, but finally agreed in order to get rid of him, insisting her sister come along, too. Khan went into a change room with the girl and indecently touched, hugged and kissed her, while instructing her sister to take a photo of them with his mobile phone.
The girl ran out of the change room and was crying when she found her parents, who were waiting outside the entrance to the store, the court heard. The girls provided a description of Khan to police, who arrested him after security footage was shown on CrimeStoppers.
Khan pleaded guilty to three charges of wilfully committing an indecent act on a child under 16.
In a victim impact statement, the girls' mother said her daughters suffered nightmares and wet their beds as a result of the attack, fearing Khan would come to their house to look for them. "We've had to reassure them constantly that not all men are like that," she said.
Judge Michael Higgins said a psychiatrist's report noted that Khan did not suffer from any mental illness and denied any feelings of pedophilia.
Khan's plea of guilty, which saved the girls from giving evidence, was the only mitigating factor he could consider with regard to sentencing, he said.
Judge Higgins did not set a minimum term for Khan, who will be deported when he is released from jail.
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