A prison escapee who confessed to sex assaults on two women is begging to be released to immigration detention after an inmate knocked out his teeth.
A prison escapee who confessed to sexually assaulting two women in Sydney is begging to be released to immigration detention after another inmate knocked out his teeth.
The man has also sensationally claimed he was “set up” by his legal team at trial and his guilty pleas should be undone.
Mahmuddle Bobbe was given six years prison in November 2019 after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting two tourists.
He was sentences to a minimum of just over three years’ jail.
He only admitted to the allegations at the eleventh hour before his trial.
But Bobbe did not go quietly to serve his time. He lasted one year before escaping from his cell in Bathurst and leading officers on a manhunt last December.
He appeared on screen in the NSW Supreme Court from his new home in Junee Correctional Centre to ask for bail ahead of his appeal in May.
Bobbe explained he had run out of prison after being assaulted and threatened with further beatings by his fellow prisoners.
“I was assaulted multiple times by my cellmate, by other prisoners in prison,” he said.
“I experienced numerous verbal abuses and was not given any treatment.”
Bobbe said he had to chew on the left side of his mouth after an inmate knocked out some fillings and teeth.
For nine months, he said, he has been unable to get his teeth repaired.
The 33-year-old, originally from Bangladesh, pleaded guilty to assaulting two female tourists in separate attacks in Wolli Creek and the Royal National Park in August 2018.
The NSW District Court heard at the time Bobbe, who met each woman on a couchsurfing app, got them alone in his car, pinned them to the passenger seat and sexually assaulted them.
He is now appealing his conviction and, on Thursday, claimed he had been forced to plead guilty by his barrister so he could get a lighter sentence.
“Everybody said if I said I am guilty I will go home,” he told the court.
“Check the conversation (I had with my barrister). They forced me to say guilty and I was very scared every time I was assaulted in prison or verbally abused.”
He wants to be sent to Villawood Immigration Detention Centre where he said he would not live in fear and would be better able to prepare his legal defence, he told the court.
Bobbe cannot return to the community, he said, because his conviction resulted in his visa being cancelled.
But prosecutors disagree with his bail and appeal, saying Bobbe signed each page of the allegations police levelled against him, signalling he understood the pleas.
His apology to the women, from the dock, was another sign he knew what he was up for, the prosecutor said.
“I assaulted two innocent people, sexually assaulted them,” he told the NSW District Court at the time.
“I’m very sorry that I did it. I never meant, I don’t know why … I’m very shameful and regret every day.”
The prosecutor claims Bobbe has a very low chance of succeeding in his appeal and he should not be released to Villawood ahead of his hearing.
Bobbe offered to wear a GPS ankle monitoring bracelet and said the women he is accused of attacking do not live in Australia so he is not a threat.
The court will rule on his bail application at a future date.
