A CHINESE University of Newcastle student who detained a Muslim woman in her home and ripped off her hijab had planned to make her strip and sexually assault her in order to fulfill a decade-long sexual fantasy.
Yanjun Lu, 23, told police he had a “pure evil purpose” of trying to commit a sexual assault when he knocked on the woman’s door at North Lambton about 11.30am on December 8, 2017.
Lu asked the woman if her WiFi was working and asked to see her modem. But once inside he inquired if anyone else was home and then slammed the front door.
The woman fled through the house and Lu gave chase yelling for her to stop.
He caught up to her as she reached the back door and pulled off her headscarf before putting his arm around her mouth and neck.
The woman managed to struggle free and ran to the nearby Callaghan campus where she raised the alarm.
Lu, known as Charles, walked into a police station later that day, telling an officer: “I think I need to hand myself in. Is this the right place? I tried to grab a girl”.
During a police interview he was asked what his purpose was for going to the woman’s house.
“It’s a pure evil purpose of trying to commit an assault,” Lu told police. “I had no good intentions. I think I was trying to do by knocking on the door was to… I would say to sexually assault her.”
When asked if he had formed the intention to sexually assault the woman before he arrived at her house, Lu replied: “Ah, yeah. It’s more of a fantasy really, but yes the idea was in my brain.”
Lu said he’d had the fantasy for “close to a decade” and “erupted” on the day of the attack. He said his plan included “threatening her” and “forcing her to strip”.
He said he “would be lying” if he said he would be able to control himself in the future. “She was obviously terrified and she was screaming bloody murder,” Lu said of the victim.
Lu apologised and acknowledged the attack would “irrevocably scar” the victim, but then said “on the other hand I am not sorry” because he said he had “gone too far”, it had become normal for him to try to act out his fantasies, and he needed to be caught.
Lu pleaded guilty to detaining a person with intent to gain advantage and on Thursday in Newcastle District Court was jailed for a maximum of 18 months, with a minimum of 12 months.
