Hidden camera clock Balesh Dhankhar 'used to film alleged rapes' at World ... trends now
This is the alarm clock fitted with a hidden camera an accused serial rapist allegedly used to film himself raping five young women.
Balesh Dhankhar, 43, is on trial facing 39 charges including 13 counts of rape of the Korean girls in January to October 2018.
He lured the women using fake job ads for a Korean to English translator for a fictitious company, then invited them to dinner after interviews.
Prosecutors alleged he spiked glasses of wine and other drinks with tablets of the sleeping drug Stilnox or infamous date-rape drug rohypnol, either at a restaurant or after luring them to his flat.
Photos inside the studio apartment at the World Square complex in the Sydney CBD showed the clock sitting on the cabinet next to his TV, pointed towards the bed.
Balesh Dhankhar is accused of luring five young Korean women with a fake job ad before drugging and raping them on camera hidden in a clock
Photos inside the studio apartment at the World Square complex in the Sydney CBD showed the clock sitting on the cabinet next to his TV, pointed towards the bed
The photos also showed other parts of his apartment, including the edge of the bed where the alleged rapes occurred, the view from his balcony, a couch, and some of his kitchen.
The plain black cube displayed the time in a classic digital readout with buttons on the back for setting the alarm.
However, there was also a small camera hidden inside the front of the clock that could be activated with a remote control.
Police discovered 47 videos of Dhankhar having sex with Korean women on his computer, catalogued under their names.
They allegedly included videos of the rapes, along with consensual sex with other women who were allegedly unaware they were being filmed.
The jury had to watch hours of these videos in the NSW District Court, and were so sickened they asked to go home early and resume the next day.
One of the videos allegedly shows Dhankhar force open one of the victims' mouths to perform oral sex while she was unconscious.
Dhankhar claims the sex was consensual and all the women agreed to be recorded using the clock or his mobile phone.
The plain black cube displayed the time in a classic digital readout with buttons on the back for setting the alarm
However, there was also a small camera hidden inside the front of the clock that could be activated with a remote control
Giving evidence in court, he denied bringing one of the women back to his flat in Sydney the night he allegedly raped her.
The jury also heard him claim to have listened as another of the women broke up with her boyfriend after they had sex, and how he was embarrassed that the sex he had with a third was too short.
The former ABC data contractor also explained how he got the Stilnox and rohypnol tablets he is accused of using to drug and rape the women.
Dhankhar was questioned by his lawyer Rebecca Mitchell about why the drugs, for which he had prescriptions, were in his flat when police raided it.
He told the court he was prescribed Stilnox in India because he was not sleeping well, and the same issue returned in 2018.
'I was not myself,' he said, explaining he slept just three to four hours a night and suffering anxiety, stress, and depression and being tired was affecting his work.
Dhankhar said he went to a doctor and was prescribed Zolpidem, as Stilnox is known in Australia, on March 5, 2018, after telling the doctor it worked for him in 2014.
Three days later he came back and said it wasn't working, and was prescribed Hypnodorm (rohypnol) instead, but though it helped him sleep, his head was 'foggy and cloudy' during the day so there was 'no point taking them'.
The doctor told him the Zolpidem would now be more effective and to switch back to that.
Dhankhar is a prominent member of Australia's Indian community, being the founding president of the OFBJP - an Australian support group for India's ruling party
The first page of the meticulous 'call list' ledger Dhankhar kept of all 75 people who responded to his fake job ads from May 2018 onwards when it became difficult to keep track of them all. BASE 4 means he had sex with them
A jury heard he had a 'very specific modus operandi' to ensnare the women - using the same hotel, café, and Korean restaurant in almost all the alleged rapes.
Dhankhar was asked about three of the woman who accused him of rape, and told the court his version of events.
The third woman he allegedly raped had a boyfriend at the time and told the court she pushed him away when he tried to dance with her and kiss her because of that.
When she woke up after allegedly being drugged and raped, she saw a condom wrapper and felt pain, leading her to realise they had sex.
She called her boyfriend in tears saying she didn't know where she was and had to break up with him because of what happened.
Dhankhar instead told the court she willingly had sex with him after they got back to his flat on October 13, 2018, and told him she was thinking of breaking up with her boyfriend.
'I don't like my boyfriend, sometimes he's rude to me or he gets angry so many times,' he told the court she told him.
He claimed after they had sex she asked him 'is it a one time thing or am I going to see you again?'
Dhankhar claimed to the court she told him she wanted to be break up with her boyfriend and if she did, 'would you start a relationship with me?'
He told the jury that after he said yes, she called her boyfriend and broke up with him as he listed to the conversation.
He said he heard her say: 'Yeah I've been thinking about this and we need to break up... I think it's not going to work'.
A jury heard he had a 'very specific modus operandi' to ensnare and rape the women - using the same hotel, café, and Korean restaurant in almost all the rapes
For the second woman he allegedly raped, Dhankhar gave a different timeline as to what happened on the night of October 9, 2018, than the prosecution's case.
The court earlier heard woman woke up in his bed naked after allegedly being raped, and refused his offer and breakfast because she wanted to go home.
Dhankhar instead claimed that after they drank wine at his apartment he drove her to Mrs Macquarie's Chair lookout and Observatory Hill, where they held hands and kissed.
He told the court that after coming back to his house they took of their clothes and passionately kissed on his bed, but she said she was too tired to have sex.
The court heard the woman slept next to him in his bed, and they had sex after waking up in the morning.
'It was very clear that she wasn't just consenting, she was leading,' he told the court when asked if he was sure the woman consented.
However, he said afterwards 'there was a bit of awkwardness I could feel', perhaps because he only lasted 10 minutes in bed.
'During conversations I was feeling a bit of embarrassment and shyness… maybe because the sex was too quick,' he told the court.
Dhankhar later texted her saying 'I'm sorry it became a little awkward in the morning' and 'I'm really sorry if you felt bad about anything'.
He told her 'I'll never push you for anything' and said they could be friends and didn't just have
