Fake cabbie 'may have assaulted 100 men'

18:40 AEST Fri Oct 16 2009

A man posed as a taxi driver and lured as many as 100 drunk young men into his car before filming his sexual assaults on them, a court has been told.

Kok Foo Lim, 42, of the Perth suburb of Tuart Hill, was one of Western Australia's worst sexual offenders, prosecutors told the District Court in Perth on Friday.

Lim, who was found guilty of 15 counts of sexual penetration without consent, 11 counts of indecent assault and one count of unlawful wounding after a trial ending in August, is to be sentenced next month.

Before the trial, he had pleaded guilty to 16 charges of unlawful and indecent assault after it was revealed those attacks had been captured on video.

The court was told between March 2003 and August 2007, Lim posed as an off-duty taxi driver and offered at least 22 drunk young men lifts from popular Perth nightspots.

He would wait until the men passed out before filming them naked, fondling them and performing sex acts on them.

Most of the men would wake up outside their homes, dazed and with no recollection of giving Lim their address or being assaulted.

Some suggested they had been drugged but the claims could not be proved because of a lack of medical evidence.

Lim's crimes were only discovered in July 2007 after he repeatedly stabbed a man he had picked up, who had questioned whether he was a cab driver.

Police uncovered videotapes Lim had thrown into his neighbour's yard, a diary that chronicled the assaults and records of his victim's names and addresses.

Prosecutor Janelle Scutt said in sentencing submissions Lim was a "dangerous, prolific and persistent offender".

"Lim may well be WA's worst sexual offender with the number of victims and regularity," she said.

By Lim's admission there could be 100 victims during the offending period. More than 60 victims could not be contacted by police.

Many of the victims were unaware of the crimes committed against them until contacted by police and shown photos or videos of the offences.

Lim had dehumanised, humiliated and degraded his victims, Ms Scutt said.

He had only pleaded guilty to charges captured on film and it was difficult to detect any genuine remorse, except for the fact his tapes were discovered, which led to his downfall.

"Had he not made them, he would not have been detected," she said.

Lim's lawyer David McKenzie said his client's offending was not at the highest end of the scale because he was not in a position of trust with his victims and there was no violence.

He said Lim had been studying film and television at university and maintained the filming of the sex acts was consensual and was for artistic purposes.

"There's no doubt Mr Lim finds the male form beautiful," Mr McKenzie said.

Mr McKenzie said Lim claimed he was working on a script.

But Ms Scutt said the script was a fantasy, featuring a taxi driver confused about his sexuality searching for the meaning of life.

"The script is autobiographical and he is the taxi driver," she said.

Judge Troy Sweeney remanded Lim in custody until his sentencing on November 20.