A 23-year-old security guard has been charged with 39 offences, including rape and torture, after allegedly tormenting four young women.
The man was arrested on Thursday at his home in Maroochydore on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
He has also been charged with strangulation, deprivation of liberty and stalking.
Two of the four women, who are all aged between 15 and 21, are alleged to have met the man while he was working as a security guard in the Maroochydore Safe Night Precinct.
The area is patrolled by state-funded security officers with the aim of reducing drug and alcohol-fuelled violence.
Over a 12 month period up until February this year, the man is also accused of hacking into computers, accessing social media accounts, breaking into a home and exerting coercive control and threats over his victims.
The man was denied bail by police and was due to appear before Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Friday.
Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Mansfield described the alleged offences as “despicable”.
He added that one of the charges was related to a historical allegation and that “the offender at that time was a young man himself”.
“[Police] will allege that there has been some coercive control over these victims,” he said.
“There’s elements of stalking involved in some … significant physical harm has been caused to all of these victims.
“They’ve been assaulted in some way aside from sexually assaulted.”
The alleged offending came to light after one of the alleged victims used the police’s online sex crimes reporting system.
“It’s a tool that we like to get other victims to utilise if they feel threatened or they’ve had an incident where they’re not sure about how they report it or go about it,” Senior Sergeant Mansfield said.
“[The alleged victims] effectively felt that they've had nowhere to go, whixjmtzywch is why I want to highlight this reporting online aspect.”
Police encourage others to use the online reporting tool if they are unsure about how to proceed with sexual violence complaints.
