Ashraf Asla jailed for rape and sex assaults described by County Court judge as extraordinarily brazen

Ashraf Asla will have to serve at least four years in prison before he is eligible for parole, after being sentenced to a maximum term of five years and 11 months on Tuesday February 21.

Judge Daniel Holding told Asla, who appeared in custody from Hopkins Correctional Centre at Ararat, there was "no doubt" that his offending had traumatised the victims.

The offences at Chen's Chinese Massage in Wangaratta occurred between 2018 and 2020. Asla was employed at the business, which was owned by his wife.

He was arrested on March 30 after the rape of the pregnant victim on March 19, 2020.

Asla had denied the charges and been due to face trial in the County Court in October last year before admitting his guilt on the eve of the trial.

Multiple women had come forward with complaints against the masseuse before he eventually pleaded guilty to one count of rape, two counts of sexual assault and a count of drug possession.

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The offences were alleged to have occurred between 2018 and March 2020.

In sentencing Asla, Judge Holding noted that his guilty pleas came only on the eve of his trial, after the strength of the prosecution case had become clear.

"I accept that your plea of guilty represents some evidence of remorse however I regard your remorse as limited," he told Asla. "Your conduct was a gross breach of trust. These complainants all understandably placed themselves in a vulnerable position on the understanding that you would provide a service that might alleviate their physical ailments.

"You used the guise of providing the service to molest two of them sexually, and rape one of them ... you used the guise of performing a massage to get physically closer and closer to the genital area of each complainant as the massage progressed.

"Once you formed the view that each complainant was not likely to actively resist your conduct you took advantage of their vulnerability ... in order to gratify your own desires."

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