Sumit Satish Rastogi, 39, an Indian man in Adelaide, Australia, has been sentenced to 13 years and 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to 97 offences, including multiple charges of aggravated indecent assault and indecent filming, involving 61 victims.Rastogi was working in a massage parlor, although he was not qualified for this work. And he committed the crimes between October 2021 and July 2022 when he was arrested.According to ABC News, Judge Carmen Mateo detailed each of the 97 crimes Rastogi committed over nine months during his sentencing. “One way or another, you violated 61 women who were trusted, without suspicion, and entitled to safety, respect and dignity,” he said.“You abused her trust and treated her with a complete lack of dignity and respect when you touched her sexually and or took photographs, which knowingly captured parts of her body that she had a right to keep private and unpublished.“Your abusive conduct was routine and, at times, prolific.”
Crime made worse by confidence
The judge said that as Rastogi became more confident in filming women, his crimes became worse. “All of your conduct in sodomizing your victims was serious, but it became particularly serious when you developed the confidence to intervene inappropriately to get direct access to their underwear,” he said.“Each of the offensive images you took involved a gross breach of trust and were completely unacceptably exploitative and when you combine that conduct with physical sexual interference, your conduct takes on another level of humiliation and disgrace to your victims.“By June and July 2022, I will characterize your crimes against client victims as being out of control and showing no signs of restraint until caught.”The judge said he took into account Rastogi’s psychiatrist’s diagnosis that he had voyeuristic disorder. He said, “His opinion is that you meet the diagnostic criteria for voyeuristic disorder because over a six-month period you experienced concurrent and intense sexual arousal by randomly viewing semi-nude women.”The judge said, “[He]says that your voyeuristic disorder is a medically plausible explanation for your offending behaviour, but that does not absolve you of responsibility for your conduct. There is no suggestion that you were unable to control your conduct or that you were not aware of it being wrong.”Rastogi will be deported from Australia after serving his entire sentence.