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A Sydney dentist has been banned from practising after pleading guilty to five sexual offences against three young women on student visas, with sentencing set for next week.
A Sydney dentist has been banned from practising and placed on home detention after pleading guilty to five sexual offences against three young women, with his sentencing hearing held at the Downing Centre District Court on Wednesday.
Maged Fouad Farag, 62, will be sentenced next week. The victims were aged 19, 21 and 25, and all had moved to Australia on student visas. Two were from Nepal and one was from Colombia. The offences spanned five years to 2024 and occurred at Farag's clinic in Rockdale, in Sydney's south.
Farag Used Skin Checks And Massages
An agreed statement of facts said Farag sucked one woman's nipple, photographed another woman naked, and used a combination of ruses such as skin checks and massages to commit his crimes. He instructed one young woman to remove her clothes and lie naked on a dental chair before touching her breasts and genitals.
The first victim, who was 19 at the time, read her victim impact statement in court, taking regular breaks with a support person to cope with her emotions. This is one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life, she said through tears. Despite everything this experience took from me, I am still here. I survived something that broke parts of me I may never fully get back.
I refuse to let it silence me any more. Because somewhere underneath all the fear I knew I deserved to have my voice heard. The woman had moved to Australia to make something of her life. She said: I was young, independent, trying to survive in a completely different country away from the comfort of family.
Farag knew I had very little support around me and he used that to his advantage. The assault shattered her safety, trust, education, finances and sleep. After this happened, I stopped feeling safe in the world, she said. She suffered quietly and alone because she lacked support in Australia.
Judge Tells First Victim She Should Be Proud
I could not allow myself to be part of the silence which allows these things to happen to others. Judge John Pickering told her she should be proud of herself, saying she directly helped provide justice for two other women. The second victim was abused at Farag's Rockdale clinic a year after moving from Nepal at 18.
Under the pretence of a mandatory skin check, he instructed me to remove my clothing, she said in a victim impact statement read out by the prosecutor. As she lay in a dental chair, he examined her body with a light and touched her breast, inner thighs, and on a later occasion, her genitals. She found this strange but trusted him because he was a doctor.
Fearing she would not be believed and that reporting Farag might affect her visa, she suffered in silence and did not tell any loved ones. The shame he placed on my shoulders was so heavy. I carried it entirely alone for years, she wrote. I blamed myself for not saying no loudly enough, for not running.
I know now, intellectually, that none of this is my fault, but knowing and feeling are very different things. Before the assaults, she described herself as outgoing, happy and loved reading. She began flinching at ordinary interactions and could not concentrate long enough to read a single page following the violation. She suffered suicidal thoughts, hypervigilance, severe weight loss, emotional numbness and nightmares.
Her long-term relationship with her only support person in Australia crumbled. In 2024, she saw a Google review alleging Farag committed indecent assault, prompting her to report him to police. She felt relief that others understood her pain, alongside rage that he had done this again. I am here now because I refuse to let him believe that what he did to me did not matter, she said, noting justice for a survivor is not free.
Farag Has Previous Sexual Assault Conviction
Farag is not a man who made a mistake. He knew what he was doing; he did it again. The court heard Farag was previously found guilty of aggravated indecent assault of a 17-year-old girl in 2002. After his arrest, police seized a contract in his possession which asked for consent to unrestricted physical contact during sessions at his clinic.
The agreement stated that anyone who did not respect confidentiality or complained to any institution or government body may be subject to fees of 500,000 dollars or higher. Farag pleaded guilty to five counts of aggravated non-consensual sexual touching, with one count of intentionally recording an intimate image without consent taken into account. He has been on bail for the current offences under home detention and a 1 million dollar surety. He was banned from working as a dentist.
Prosecutors submitted the crimes involved significant planning with a motive of sexual gratification and were committed under fraudulent professional pretexts such as massage techniques, physiotherapy techniques, or skin checks. The defence team argued Farag's diagnosis of long-standing persistent depression contributed to his offending. Judge Pickering was sceptical about differentiating depression that arose before or after his arrest, given it was diagnosed by a psychiatrist who saw him once two weeks ago. That psychiatrist put Farag's reoffending risk at below average.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Men's Referral Service on 1300 766 491. These resources offer confidential counselling and assistance to help victims rebuild and seek justice.
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brisbanetimes:This story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
Sydney Dentist Sexual Abuse Victim Impact Student Visas Home Detention Maged Fouad Farag Sydney Dentist Sentencing Sexual Assault Survivors International Students Downing Centre District Court
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