Catfishing: Man sentenced after duping a woman into sex.

A Melbourne man has been arrested, charged and sentenced over pretending to be a blonde muscular man online and tricking a woman into sex.

She was expecting a muscular blond man named “Jamie”.  She left the door open she waited, naked.

Instead, the man who came to her bed was a slight, dark-haired Indian named Deepak.

He had been trawling the online dating sites looking for an escape from his troubled marriage. He claimed he was sexually frustrated and was looking for someone to spice up his life.

She was a mother of two also on the dating site Oasis. She came across the blonde Caucasian man, muscular and with similar interests.

What she didn’t realize that “Jamie” was a fictional character created in the mind of 29-year old Deepak Dhankar – a married father-of-three, who is neither muscular nor blonde – instead Indian.

Yesterday in Melbourne County Court Judge Jane Patrick sentenced Dhankar – who was supported in court by his wife – to a two-year community corrections order after his deception was reported to police.

On October 7, 2012  Deepak Dhankar arranged to meet the  woman at her home after chatting online for three days.

The meeting was all about sex. The woman was to be naked and face down on her bed when he arrived just has they had arranged.

It was an elaborate dominant-submissive game they had agreed upon during their online chats.

In court the judge said that Dhankar “insisted that the complainant was to keep her eyes closed at all times and never look at Jamie in her role as submissive”.

It was their own private ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’.

The Age reports that it wasn’t until their sexual encounter had moved to the shower that the woman realised “Jamie” didn’t exactly match his profile pic.

Related content: What is catfishing?

When one of her children sleeping on a nearby room called out she opened her eyes to go to her child’s aid.

“As she opened her eyes she saw your hand and immediately realised that you were dark-skinned and not the Jamie that she was expecting,” Judge Patrick said.

The woman told the court she became fearful and decided to “play along” until he left.

After he had departed she confronted him over the lies and told him she was reporting him to the police.

The Age reports that in a victim’s impact statement the woman said she had been left feeling violated.

Yesterday Dhankar pleaded guilty to one count of procuring sexual penetration by deception, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail.

The court heard that Dhankar was sexually frustrated and having difficulties in his marriage.

The judge took into account his guilty plea and the support of his wife when sentencing.

She said “you were clearly aware of the importance of physical appearance and physical attributes in connection with internet dating and in the arrangements that you were making with the complainant,”

“You maintained the deception by telling her to keep her eyes closed. You cynically took advantage of the complainant’s willingness to allow a person into her home and engage in sexual activity with a person who was a stranger to her, except for electronic communications.”

“I would urge all people of whatever gender or age to be very careful about accepting the truth of online descriptions and to be extremely cautious about allowing a virtual stranger to enter their home,”

Dhankar was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and ordered to participate in mental health and sex offender treatment as part of the community corrections order.