He did not lay a finger on the victim. Nor was he present when two others did. Even so, an unusual legal principle saw Tony Golossian convicted of the woman's sexual assault because he pulled the strings to make it happen.
Golossian, 63, is believed to be the first person in NSW found guilty of sexual assaults committed through a third party, while he was somewhere else.
Addressing the jury at his District Court trial last year, the Crown prosecutor, Sarah Huggett, said, ''You might think, 'Well, how can he be charged? He was not the person who actually had sexual intercourse with her, he wasn't even there.
''This is because of a concept known at law as the doctrine of innocent agency.''
The doctrine allows a person to be held liable for offences they facilitated, procured or encouraged through an unwitting participant, or ''innocent agent'', even if they did not commit the crime themselves.
The circumstances of Golossian's case were distinctive, to say the least.
A reputed ''holy man'', he convinced two Greek Orthodox women they had been cursed by black magic.
Golossian warned they would get cancer, that their families would fall fatally ill or be killed in an accident. But if they paid him to pray over them, and obeyed the instructions he supposedly received from angels, the curse could be lifted.
Both women gave evidence of being sexually assaulted during prayer sessions. One victim, aged 24, was ordered to arrange a threesome with another woman or the curse would take her family one at a time, leaving her to die last.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/holy-man-guilty-of-remote-sex-assault/2121070.aspx
No comments:
Post a Comment