The victims of a serial rapist who preyed on teenagers and young women via Gumtree have expressed their outrage at his jail sentence, with one of them taking aim at the judge within the courtroom.
Renowned artist Pierre Raphael Mol, 59, appeared via video link in the NSW District Court on Friday dressed in prison greens from South Coast Correctional Centre.
In court was a group of his victims, who consoled each other and held hands while the sentence was handed down.
Mol is already in prison for the rape of three women and was due to be released in August 2025. However, three more of his victims recently reported him to police for which he was sentenced on Friday.
The court heard how Mol was a fine arts professor at UNSW at the time of the offending and targeted the women, who were looking for casual work, on Gumtree.
Mol would offer them modelling work and invite them to his studio in Sydney’s north shore where they were subejct to unwanted sexual contact.
The youngest of his victims was 19. He was 48 at the time.
Judge Paul McGuire SC handed down a seven year head sentence, with a non-parole period for four years and three months.
However, the sentence was backdated to July 5, 2022 when he was hit with the fresh charges, meaning he will eligible for release on October 4, 2026.
One of the victims, Hollie May, who has given news.com.au permission to be identify her, addressed the judge after the sentencing was handed down, stating: “Not cool, judge, not cool.”
Outside court, Ms May said she felt “outraged” and “shocked” by the sentence. She said Mol was practically handed just more than a year extra behind bars for the assault of three more women.
“To receive just one more year, it’s an injustice to survivors of sexual assault,” she said.
“[Mol] took complete advantage of teenagers and young people. My entire life has been affected, as I know it has for the other victims too.
Another victim Ashley Yakimchuk had flown in from Canada just to witness the sentencing.
“I’m sad for women. I’m sad for victims of assault. This is the very reason why we don’t come forward,” she said.
“If we do literally barely anything happens so yeah, I feel like it’s just like a really sad time.”
The NSW Department of Planning recently announced they would be taking down a major mural in the Rocks which was painted by Mol in 2006 following a petition which was set up by the victims. The mural was called Brown Bear Lane and was painted on the side wall of a shop along George Street.
The court heard how Mol would show his victims photos of the mural in order to gain their trust as a professional artist.
The victims said they were told they would be included in the piece.
“It’s super disappointing,” Ms Yakimchuk said.
“I feel like they did it in such like a quiet way they just didn’t want the bad press. They didn’t want any of it.”
The offending
Mol shot to fame in the industry in the early 2000s when he painted the largest mural in the southern hemisphere at the request of the Sultan of Brunei before moving into academia.
In five out of six of the cases for which he has been charged, Mol contacted the young women who were looking for casual work via Gumtree offering them modelling work.
The court heard how Mol assured the women the work would be “strictly professional” telling one of the women: “I want to make this clear. I want people to know I am a professional artist and not a creep.’
On Friday, the court heard how Mol digitally raped on of the women while sketching her, saying he needed to make her genitalia look more “colourful and flushed” for the drawing.
Mol asked if she was “getting aroused” as he did so to which she replied “no”.
He then dropped her off at the station after the offending and gave her $100 before telling her: “I guess you won’t come back and see me again?”.
The court heard how he “chuckled” as he drove away with Judge McGuire saying this conduct was proof Mol knew the victim had not consented.
In his statement to the court, Mol blamed his actions on his “lifelong mission to understand the human figure” and believed that because the women were art students, they would also be “dedicated” to his “study”.
The sixth woman met Mol at an artist competition for which he was a judge. He offered her some art experience and an opportunity to be his assistant, for which she travelled down from Byron Bay to Sydney.
Upon arrival, Mol offered her a massage and tried to take off her top. He then told her: “The right person for the job is willing to do what the job requires.”
The sentence
Ahead of his sentencing for the three latest victims, Mol pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual intercourse without consent and three charges of indecent assault.
He was sentenced to 14 years for the indecent assault and rape of the three original women in 2015.
In Mol’s letter to the court, the judge said he “continued” to put blame of the victims and said that they “gave him the impression they were attracted to him”.
“He lacks insight into the true meaning of consent,” Judge McGuire said.
“He also claimed his interest in his victims was not sexually motivated … but motivated by his want to understand the naked body.
“The offender has acted with complete disregard for their vulnerability.”
He also wrote in his letter that he has paid a “heavy price” for his mistakes through he loss of his art and academic career.
Mol’s son and daughter also provided character references saying he had missed out on major milestones in their lives due to his imprisonment.
Judge McGuire said he would take into consideration the fact that Mol lost “privileges” in custody after being hit with the new charges, including being unable to teach art lessons in jail.
Get in touch with the journo. Sarah.Keoghan@news.com.au