An ‘evil’ tradie is behind bars after he planned and raped a 75-year-old customer in her home before blaming his wife because she wouldn’t have sex with him.
The electrician even asked his wife to give evidence in his defence in court, but it didn’t save him despite his partner claiming he was ‘loving and respectful’.
Amol Vijay Dhumal, 45, was found guilty by jury verdict of sexual intercourse without consent in September after raping the woman in her Mount Colah home in north-western Sydney in 2024.
Dhumal was sent to the woman’s home to install solar panels on April 22, 2024, where he asked the elderly woman who she lived with.
She told him she lived alone before he hugged her and tried to kiss her, saying she reminded him of his mother.
She rejected his advances and told him to leave, which he did with a fellow tradie.
Dhumal was back at her house two days later, however, to fix a problem with her power, and it was then he asked her about her kids and how often they came around to visit.
Dhumal told the elderly woman his wife never had sex with him and grabbed the 75-year-old again, trying to drag her into the bedroom.
The woman was raped in her lounge room by tradie Amol Vijay Dhumal who was over to fix solar panels
The rape occurred in Mount Colah in north-western Sydney in 2024
Judge Craig Everson SC sentenced Dhumal to five years in prison and will be eligible for parole in April 2030.
‘You’ve got to be kidding,’ the woman said at the time.
Dhumal then attacked the elderly woman and raped her in her lounge room, causing injury to her.
Judge Craig Everson SC said: ‘I’m satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Dhumal asked those questions to ascertain the extent to which he would be detected raping the victim in the minutes that followed.’
The woman was too traumatised to be in court with her rapist as Dhumal was sentenced last week.
But she wrote a victim impact statement, which said she had been ‘not living, but only existing’ since the attack.
‘This is the most torturous tragedy of my life. I’m in prison in my own home,’ she wrote.
She said she still lives in fear despite the fact her attacker is behind bars.
The woman said she had always given her time to volunteer causes and supported multiculturalism in her community, but after the attack she had ‘withdrawn from it all.’
‘This home is supposed to give me the security, peace and lasting good memories but now it is a horror tragic place to live,’ she wrote.
‘I now bolt all the windows and doors and feel so alarmed that out there someone knows I live alone – and will just come in again and harm me.’
Dhumal told NSW police she was a liar who was trying to set him up for the rape
His wife, Gauri, was in court for her husband’s sentencing, and although she didn’t want to comment on the rape, she told the court: ‘My husband is loving and respectful.’
The court heard Dhumal was remorseless, and the judge said it was ‘ludicrous’ to think he wasn’t at risk of raping again.
His victim described him as a ‘very evil person who has a very evil mind, evil heart, an evil and filthy mouth.’
Soon after the woman reported the rape, Dhumal told police she was a liar who was trying to set him up because he did not answer a phone call from her.
‘The fact that he denies the offence and shows no remorse suggests to me that he is at risk of reoffending, at the very least because he’s not able to grasp what properly involves consent,’ Judge Everson said.
Dhumal was sentenced to five years in prison and will be eligible for parole in April 2030.
He has lodged an appeal but will stay in jail until his appeal is determined.
