* The Ashfield gang rapes was a series of attacks involving indecent assault and rape of possibly as many as eighteen teenaged women of varying ethnic backgrounds which were carried out in Ashfield, New South Wales, Australia in late 2001 and over a six-month period in 2002.[1] Four Pakistani brothers and a Nepali student were convicted and imprisoned for the rapes.
The Khan brothers were referred to in court reports by their initials only, as two of the brothers were 16 and 17 at the time of the crimes.[3] The fifth rapist, Ram Shrestha, was a Nepalese immigrant and friend of the “K” brothers. As of July 2005, MSK was 26 years old, MAK, 25, MRK, 20, MMK, 19, and Shrestha, also referred to merely with his initials, was 25.[4]
The K brothers are sons of a Sydney general practitioner, Dr Hasan K, of Pakistani origin. The eldest, MSK, was married with a six-year-old son as of 2005.[4] They had grown up in Pakistan and had been brought to Sydney in 2000 by their father, who provided them with a house in Ashfield. He unsuccessfully attempted in court to provide an alibi for his sons, and was facing perjury charges at the time of his death in November 2006.[3]
At the time of the trial three of the K brothers were already serving a prison sentence for a previous rape. Defendant MSK divulged this information, which had been kept from the jury to prevent them from being biased against the defendants, in open court in a supposed attempt to have the trial aborted.
