A convicted sex predator who a court heard plied young women with alcohol before raping them feels no remorse for his crimes and continues to blame his victims, insisting the attacks were ‘consensual’.
Thomas Hofer was a former real estate agent in Sydney‘s inner west when he was jailed for six and a half years over eight counts of sexual assault that took place in October 2014.
In a confronting TV interview the paroled rapist defended his attack on a 17-year-old girl, and pointed out that the age of consent is 16.
‘I’m 100 per cent innocent of what happened,’ Hofer told A Current Affair.
‘It was eight counts of sexual assault of which was completely 100 per cent consensual… and the age of consent is 16.’
When asked if he would like to say sorry to the women, he even replied: ‘I would like to say sorry to all genuine victims of sexual assault.’
When Channel Nine reporter Hannah Sinclair (pictured) asked if Hofer had any remorse given one of the women had contemplated suicide in the wake of his attack, he dismissed the question
Hofer placed ads on the share house website flatmates.com.au and lured his victims to a bar in Glebe before plying them with booze and taking them back to the property to inspect the room, a court heard back in 2016.
‘I advertised for them to share a one bedroom with me. I specified the one bedroom, so there would be no misunderstanding and it showed a king sized bed,’ Hofer said.
His first victim was an American traveller, 23, who told the court during Hofer’s trial she was so drunk that by the time they went back to the room she was unable to fight off the predator’s sexual advances.
The following morning the woman told police she had been repeatedly raped.
The very next night, Hofer carried out an identical attack on a girl, 17, who also reported the crime to police.
Despite his conviction, Hofer insists the women were not drunk.
‘They were not plied with alcohol, they were quite tipsy,’ he claimed. ‘They were moderately intoxicated, not substantially.’
His trial in 2016 heard that he bought one victim a drink called a ‘Lolita’, and then removed glasses of water from her when she tried to sober up.
Back at the apartment, he attacked her and she was unable to fight him off.
‘I was trying to get him to stop, I was saying, “stop I want to go home I don’t want to have sex”, and I kept trying to repeat this,’ she told the court.
‘I was trying to use my arms to push him off but I didn’t have the strength.’
Thomas Hofer (pictured) was a former real estate agent in Sydney’s inner west when he was jailed for six and a half years over eight counts of sexual assault that took place in October 2014
Hofer placed ads on the sharehouse website flatmates.com.au and lured his victims to a bar in Glebe before plying them with booze and taking them back to the property to inspect the room.
When Channel Nine reporter Hannah Sinclair asked if Hofer had any remorse given one of the women had contemplated suicide in the wake of his attack, he dismissed the question.
‘Well I attempted suicide in jail because I was unable to prove my innocence,’ Hofer replied.
In a bizarre business venture, the convicted rapist is now campaigning for funds to launch a sexual consent app.
The proposed technology would supposedly work by recording the audio consent of sexual partners.
Hofer says it would reduce date rape but critics fear it could also be utilised by predators to coerce woman into making false recordings.
‘It is something that the police commissioner Mick Fuller – I came up with the idea before him – but he believed it would be a good idea,’ Hofer said.
‘If there is an audio recording of consent the women won’t be making false allegations.’
In a bizarre business venture, the convicted rapist is now campaigning for funds to launch a sexual consent app (stock image)
Hofer had tried to appeal his conviction in the High Court of Australia but his case was quickly dismissed, with judges ruling there was ‘no reasonable doubt’ over his guilt.
Child protection advocate Hetty Johnston called his idea for the sex consent app ‘illogical and stupid and ignorant as his actions.’
‘While he’s been caught and been convicted, he’s now back out again and you know creating apps and just chest beating all over the place. It’s sickening, absolutely sickening,’ Ms Johnston said.
‘This man is dangerous and he’s out there like so many other predators and our system really fails – particularly women and children – just on a daily basis. It’s extraordinary and depressing.
‘What people need to understand is that when people are sexually assaulted it’s not like you stole their car or their fridge or their wallet, you’ve stolen something far, far deeper than that from them.’
But in recent days Hofer is back behind bars after his parole was revoked when police charged him with a string of unrelated offences.