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Australian Crime Stories: The Investigators - Season 3 Episode 4 -
Uncovering Evil
Uncovering Evil
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00:00There was an element of trust Frank had over these women based upon his position as an older
00:26male as a boss. How many victims are involved in this? How many people has he offended against?
00:38We have someone who is actively recruiting international students for the purpose of
00:43sexually offending against them. They've accepted something to drink from him and they've woken up
00:49either in hospital or at home. It was the perfect crime because you have a victim who doesn't know
00:56that they've been a victim. I was scared of Frank. I wish I'd never met him. I mean it's frightening.
01:06This was backyard anaesthesia. How did this happen under everyone's noses in plain sight?
01:12Oh my god, this is, this is really big.
01:27What's the law you want? My name's Lawrence Shanahan. I'm a detective leading senior
01:32council of police and I currently work at the Hobsons Bay Criminal Investigation Unit.
01:47On the 27th of July 2019, I was working the morning crime shift at Melbourne Socket, which stands for
01:55Sex Offense and Child Abuse Investigation Team. It was approximately two o'clock when I received a phone
02:03call from the St Vincent's Hospital and I spoke to a young lady who informed me that she'd been
02:09at work when she believed that she'd been drugged by her boss and believed that she had been sexually
02:15offended against. And she'd gotten very sick and had a cardiac arrest. It obviously was strange to her
02:23because she said she wasn't feeling ill prior to going to her first day of work, in translation,
02:28at an immigration agency. Her boss was a man by the name of Frank Hu.
02:42She states that there was a period of time where she believed she left her carton of milk alone.
02:53And then when she came back she had a drink of it and it tasted bitter.
02:58It was a short time after that that she started to feel dizzy and feel unwell.
03:06And then the next thing she knows she wakes up in hospital.
03:12She just felt like something was off and something wasn't right.
03:15There was something about this job that just rung a bell with me. She was working in an office in the city.
03:26She was a Chinese student and the fact she said her boss's name was Frank and that was something that
03:31really stuck to me.
03:32I got further details from her and let her know that the afternoon guys that were coming in,
03:40I actually saw them come in as I was on the phone to her. I said that they would be out there to have
03:45a chat to her.
03:50So as soon as I got off the phone, I had this thought in my mind that I've heard this before.
03:55I'm sure I've had a job that's similar to this involving this person, Frank.
04:03His name is Xiaodong Hu and goes by the English name Frank.
04:08He had nine offices within the same building in Little Collins Street.
04:15Multiple businesses which all appeared to be immigration agencies.
04:18He was both an Australian and Chinese citizen.
04:24So I looked on Interpose and then I found another job.
04:29I looked at it and I go, well, I don't know this job,
04:32but this isn't the job that I'm thinking of in my mind.
04:37I was like, okay, there's a third one here because I know I've done another one as well.
04:42Well, the connections between victims one, two and three were that they were all employed
04:48by Frank Hu. All his victims were Chinese. They've had something to drink or eat with him
04:57and then they've become unconscious and woken up hours later.
05:03So I remember saying to the guys, there's something in this.
05:09I briefed the afternoon shift on the latest alleged victim of Frank Hu.
05:14And they went to St Vincent's Hospital to talk to the young lady.
05:18I'm Dr Janine Rouse and I am a clinical forensic physician at the Victorian Institute of Forensic
05:33Medicine. We primarily work at the interface between medicine and law and with living victims
05:39of sexual violence, interpersonal violence. That comes with its own unique set of challenges.
05:49So on the 27th of July 2019, I remember distinctly, I was out to dinner before starting a night shift.
05:56And I received a phone call from a colleague.
06:09My colleague was calling to tell me about a case.
06:13The story was that a female had woken up from intensive care where she had been intubated after
06:22having had a cardiac arrest where she'd been shocked back to life and required CPR.
06:28And she had alleged that she had been drugged on her first day of her new job and that she may
06:38have been sexually assaulted. Immediately, I knew that we'd had a case almost identical to this
06:46eight months prior that I'd also attended. A victim had contacted police and she
07:00had described starting her first day at a new job and her boss had given her a hot chocolate to drink.
07:06Shortly afterwards, she felt unwell. There was a period of unknown.
07:29And she'd ended up in the hospital.
07:31And she was concerned that she'd been sexually assaulted.
07:40So I became involved then. I conducted a forensic medical examination and collected toxicology.
07:51And the toxicology came back showing that there had been sedative hypnotic agents administered to that victim.
08:02Because the toxicology came back with such an unexpected result, I just assumed that this case
08:10had proceeded. So I was shocked and surprised eight months later to hear an almost identical story.
08:21Literally, my heart missed a beat when I realised this was a serial offence.
08:25I immediately ran out of the restaurant and got on the phone to the police and said,
08:33this is a serial guy and he's going to do a runner. Because I remembered he was from overseas and that
08:37it was sort of some sort of immigration set up in the city, right in the heart of Melbourne CBD.
08:43Already, time has passed. It had been about four days since the alleged incident.
08:52And time is DNA, unfortunately. She'd been in intensive care for days. So, you know,
08:58she would have been washed and cleaned and clothes changed. And so already I'm thinking,
09:04gee, the forensic value in this exam is already dwindling.
09:09Things were confounded by all the drugs that she would have been administered in hospital.
09:13So even before arriving at the hospital, I was madly calling the treating doctors and asking about any
09:20samples of blood that may have been taken when she arrived. As it turned out, there was a sample
09:26of blood that was taken. So I was frantically on the phone saying, you need to get your hands on that
09:32vial of blood. The police will need this. Even if you have to physically go down to the pathology lab
09:38and make sure that's not discarded, that is so important. We have to learn the lessons from the
09:44case eight months prior and we have to get everything right this time.
10:00On the morning of July 28, 2019, I was pretty keen to come back and find out what the afternoon guys
10:06had done. By the time I came in the morning, I remember being approached by one of the women
10:14from IFAS, Detective Kay, and she said, you wouldn't believe what we found. There was a fourth victim.
10:23Another job on top of the three that there was from the day before that I knew about.
10:27She was also a Chinese student. She started working and it was her trial day.
10:42Frank had offered her hot chocolate multiple times and she didn't want one,
10:48but she felt obligated to accept after he insisted.
10:51After that, she started to feel violently ill. She's gone to the toilet and thrown up.
11:03She's come back into the office and Frank has offered her a tablet to help ease her stomach,
11:09which again, she's accepted. And then from there, she's basically become unconscious.
11:15And she's woken up in the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
11:31Frank, who has actually taken her to hospital himself in an Uber. And it was at that stage,
11:37I was like, oh my God, this is, this is really big.
11:40We have someone who is actively recruiting international students from China for the purpose
11:48of sexually offending against them. At the time of reporting, two of the victims didn't want their
11:55matters investigated further. These people are reporting the most horrific thing that they've
12:04ever experienced in their life. They're at their most vulnerable the day they walk into a police
12:08station and tell us their story. Sometimes they just want to be heard. They just want to be believed.
12:16And quite often, that's enough. We now had two active cases. The report from yesterday, July 27,
12:26and the fourth victim I'd just heard about. We're joining the dots. They've responded to an advertisement
12:35on a Chinese website for an admin or translator position at his work. They were working alone with
12:42him. They've accepted something to drink from him. And they've woken up either in hospital or at home.
12:53And then I got told about the Border Force download.
12:55Frank Hu had been moving back and forth between Australia and China for many years. Frank was of
13:09interest to Australian Border Force as he's an immigration agent. They had stopped him on his return
13:15to Australia in 2018. And they were able to search his belongings. And they've downloaded his phone as
13:23part of that process. They found a bunch of images and videos of women who were unconscious and looked
13:33as though they were being sexually interfered with. He was questioned about this. However, he stated that
13:41it was role-playing and it was all consensual, which couldn't be disproven at the time.
13:51Border Force had supplied information to Victoria Police. Unfortunately, at the time,
13:57no women were able to be identified. So there wasn't enough evidence to take the investigation further.
14:04I've had a look at the images and videos. And then I remember talking to the guys and going,
14:11I don't think this is any of the four victims that we're talking about. So it was at that stage,
14:17it was like, how many victims are involved in this? How many people has he offended against?
14:25The images and videos we were watching were really graphic and really quite disturbing. And
14:33it was a really serious job.
14:42In the sexual offence investigation, arresting the suspect is often the last step in the process.
14:48But in this case, the priority was to get Frank off the streets. It was clear that he was continuing
14:55to offend. So the most important thing was keeping community safe.
15:09My name is Sarah Morse. In July 2019, I was working as a Detective Senior Sergeant at the Sexual
15:14Crime Squad. This investigation started with the Melbourne Socket. However, they became aware that
15:21it was likely to breach sort of their scope because of the number of victims. They required extra resources.
15:29The Sexual Crime Squad has a greater capacity to investigate these offences.
15:34So we took Laurie into the Sexual Crime Squad and he joined one of our teams. So we were able to assist,
15:43initially with the search warrants.
15:47Everyone within the office really chipped in and just made this their primary focus.
15:51Just gathered in as much evidence as we could in a small amount of time
15:55to get search warrants issued by the Magistrate so we could go and arrest this person.
16:07On the 1st of August 2019, we executed simultaneous search warrants on multiple offices on Little
16:14Collins Street.
16:14Office 303, which was on Level 3 of the Little Collins building, was his primary personal office.
16:32I remember knocking on the door, telling him it was police and for him to open up.
16:37I'd clearly woken him up. He was half asleep. The first thing I did was arrest him, give him his
16:45caution and rights. I then searched him and he had women's underwear on. He had a pair of women's
16:53underwear in his pocket as well as pantyhose and condoms in his pocket. And he'd been asleep on some
17:02grey matting, which I would later identify in the videos and images of his offending.
17:10Frank Hu had his personal office on Level 3, but there were other offices he'd leased within the
17:15building. His business was mainly run out of an office on Level 10. So he sent a team up there as
17:23well. One of the employees actually approached police and disclosed that she believed that
17:29she had been offended against by Frank as well. So we're now looking at victim number five that we've identified.
17:46This is a picture taken from the interview I did with Frank Hu. The first thing I notice
17:53is the long fingernails, really long fingernails. It was an interview in which he was very steadfast
18:04that he had done nothing wrong. Frank Hu agreed that the women who had made allegations against him
18:11had indeed been unconscious in his presence, but he said he'd done nothing to contribute to that.
18:18I showed Frank images of him sexually offending against an unconscious female,
18:23to which he said they'd had sex, it was consensual, she had fallen asleep during sex,
18:29but just because she was asleep that it doesn't mean you can stop. Which I contested and stated that
18:36that's not the case and that that is rape. He was very steadfast and just would not admit what he'd done
18:43was wrong. Frank Hu not making any admissions of guilt didn't change anything. We still had to prove
18:51each charge. We began working through the evidence we'd collected at his office when we arrested him.
19:02This is a close-up of the temporary mattress she was sleeping on,
19:06and this is an image of a syringe that was located in his office.
19:16We found a whole bunch of different drugs with blister packets, bottles of tablets,
19:22multiple syringes and cannulas, along with sex toys, women's underwear.
19:29As far as the drugs were concerned, we didn't know what they were and we had to take them to
19:34VIFM to have them tested to give us some clarity as to what these drugs were and what they were used for.
19:42As the case grew, Laurie was communicating quite frequently and sending images of different
19:49medications and they weren't in English either. There were sort of pictures of bottles and drugs
19:54all in Chinese and I used Google Translate literally on my phone to sort of try and work
20:00out what on earth are these, what are these drugs. And I'll never forget the moment when one of them
20:05just sort of popped up in the translator and it was seviflurane. And that was sort of the penny drop
20:12moment for me. Oh my god, this is, this is anaesthesia. These drugs were being used to firstly render the
20:20victim sedated. The small plastic tubing and the syringes were actually being used to maintain the victim in
20:29an anaesthetised state while the offending was occurring. The accused could sort of adjust the
20:35level of medication based on, you know, whether the victim was rousing or not. I mean, it's just,
20:42it's just incomprehensible. It's, it's, I mean, you're literally playing with death. We've never seen
20:47anything, anything like it. Over the next few weeks, we were getting back all the blood and urine test
20:55results for the cardiac arrest patient who'd set the investigation in motion. With those three
21:02mills of blood, some drugs did show up in the blood and the urine and they were unusual.
21:09For example, midazolam, which can induce amnesia. So it causes forgetfulness. Lignocaine,
21:16which is also used for local anaesthesia. It's also sometimes used for inserting a urinary catheter
21:22in males as a numbing gel. We had to sort of be medical detectives. So that meant, for example,
21:29speaking on the phone to the nurses that were working the day that the victim came into hospital,
21:34just to ensure that they hadn't used, you know, a male urinary catheter pack for any reason and that
21:40there was no lignocaine in the gel that they would have used to insert her catheter. And then we could
21:46sort of cross that off as a potential source. What followed was a slow process of elimination.
21:54I checked hundreds of pages of the victim's medical records to exclude alternative sources
22:00for the drugs that had been identified. To be able to say at the end of that hand on heart,
22:05the most likely thing is that the accused has administered these drugs to this victim without
22:10her knowledge. Had she not been in hospital when she had a cardiac arrest, she would have died.
22:18That's, it's as simple as that. The drugs that were identified, I mean, it's frightening. This was
22:25backyard anaesthesia. Someone without a medical degree, outside of an operating theatre with breathing
22:31machines, the medical teams, all the measures that we have in place when you administer anaesthesia.
22:38How did this happen under everyone's noses in plain sight?
22:48Who is Frank Hu? At the time, we didn't know who Frank Hu was. His Chinese passport indicated he was
22:56born in China in 1984. I've heard multiple stories about his family, one that his dad was in the military,
23:04one that his dad worked for the Chinese equivalent of Vic Rhodes, one that his mother was the chief of
23:10Chinese police. I don't know what's true and what's false when it comes to his backstory.
23:17There were some facts we learned about him. Frank Hu came to Australia in early 2000s and finished his
23:22schooling at Taylor's College in Melbourne. He got a degree in computer science from Deakin University.
23:28He established his own migration agency on Little Collins Street in 2016 and somewhere along the way,
23:38he became an Australian citizen.
23:41He is an incredibly manipulative person. He had two wives and three girlfriends all at the same time.
23:49None of these women knew about each other. They were all under the impression that he was in a relationship
23:57with them and in a relationship with only them. When we executed the warrants on the building at
24:03Little Collins Street, we also executed warrants on the residential addresses that we had listed for
24:09Frank Hu in Melbourne. But before knocking on the doors, we spent a good deal of time examining the images
24:16and photos of the victims that we had on fire. The original report came from the Australian Border
24:25Force who had provided Victoria Police with images from the offender's phone when he returned to Australia
24:31after a trip to China. When the search warrant was executed in 2019, the investigators realised that the
24:41person who answered the door, they recognised her from the images that were on that phone and realised that
24:47she was one of those victims. That was quite unsettling because they did realise it's likely the offender
24:52was offending against people in his own home, potentially his partner, and that would have gradually
24:58dawned on the investigators as they entered that residence. As well as three girlfriends,
25:04we discovered that he had two wives and none of them knew anything about one another. They provided
25:12some valuable insights. He boasted, as well as being a migration agent, he was also a pilot in the Royal
25:20Australian Air Force. They were of the belief that he lived on base at the Air Force and that's why he
25:31didn't come home every night. I've spoken to the Defence Force, confirmed that he had no involvement
25:38at all. He is an incredible liar who seemed to lie for no reason a lot of the time.
25:49When we executed search warrants on his office, we seized six phones, two laptops and a hard drive computer.
26:01There was thousands of images and videos. The images alone, 1949 and 232 videos.
26:15And I spent days combing through his computers and his phones to try and identify who they were.
26:22Our team was able to help Laurie with that to take some of that burden because it is a really onerous
26:30thing for investigators going through all of those images and all of those videos. That is a very big
26:38mental impost on one person. The worst thing for Laurie would be for him to go home each day feeling
26:45overwhelmed. But it's also important to make sure this person was held to account because
26:50as investigators that is our focus.
26:55So in total I identified 15 women who were in those images. 10 of those provided statements to
27:03police and were willing to give evidence against Frank.
27:05In order for Laurie and his team to prosecute this medically and forensically complex case in court,
27:14the evidence needed to be watertight. We ended up using hair toxicology.
27:22When you're looking at offences that have occurred months to years prior, the drug is actually absorbed
27:29into the hair shaft through the follicle from the bloodstream. It's not perfect, but it's a really
27:37useful tool in a case like this where we had nothing else to go from. So Laurie coordinated a hair clinic
27:45and he'd organised to have the victims come in. We had an appointment schedule, one after the other,
27:51and we took hair samples from each of the victims willing to participate.
28:00The good news is, while it was incredibly complicated, we were able to obtain what was
28:06required to assist Laurie and his team in compiling their brief of evidence for court.
28:19When I first met with Frank, it was for a job, office receptionist job. I didn't work for him for
28:28a very long time.
28:42In the beginning, I trusted him and I trusted him a lot because I was new to Australia. But after a certain
28:50period of time, I noticed he was like getting angry over very small things and even to his clients.
29:00At the end, I didn't hurt him at all. I was scared of Frank.
29:04I remember he offered me hot chocolate. I just drank the hot chocolate and yeah, and I fell asleep.
29:15I woke up after like a very long time nap. I felt weak. Something was wrong.
29:32I went to the hospital like I was taken by ambulance and they did do several checks.
29:44When police first told me that Frank has been dragging and assaulting people, I was not shocked.
29:50I was only shocked when police asked me to identify myself from a bunch of photos of the videos because
29:57there was a lot of photos and videos. I had to search in the police station for like one to two
30:06hours to identify myself. There was heaps of them. The police asked me to do the hair test. So
30:16Detective Shanahan drove me to a test center and they took sample of my hairs and they tested if there was
30:25any residue left in my system. Even after quite a long time, they still found something in my system.
30:36Looking back then, I believe Frank is a very calculated person. To be honest, I wish I never met him.
30:50A revealing insight into the true character of Frank Hu was discovered.
30:53With his membership of a vile Chinese website. It was a fetish website in which there was images and
31:04videos of predominantly women who were unconscious, all in a state of undress, that were being sexually
31:12interfered with. Frank Hu had uploaded images and videos that he had taken himself
31:19in order to share with other users. One of the interesting posts that was he spoke about and the
31:27drugs and how to use them to offend against women. The amount you need to use and the life the drug has
31:36on the victim is he spoke about playtime. Use any more than this amount of drugs. It will give you this
31:45amount of playtime. Any more than that is a waste of time. So I thought that was a good indicator of how he saw his victims.
31:52Did that shock you when you discovered that?
31:54It didn't shock me, but not because I'm unshockable, but because I do know that these offenders are
32:01incredibly depraved and that there is actually a market for this. There is an audience
32:05online that are quite happy to watch this sort of revolting behaviour.
32:09Where are these other people and where do they live and who are they offending against? The chat rooms
32:17were not only being used to share conquests, but to educate others in how to do this. I just don't
32:25have words for the sort of human that, you know, he obviously is to have done this.
32:30At the committal proceeding, there was only one victim called to give evidence. She did an amazing job.
32:47She was very firm under tough cross-examination, but she was really resolute as to what had happened.
32:56This victim had been offended against approximately 68 times and at no stage during any of those 68
33:05occasions was she ever conscious. The evidence against Frank was very clear and honestly quite horrific.
33:16Was Frank Hu still saying he was not guilty? Yeah, so he was contesting all the charges that were put to
33:24him. He wanted to go to trial. He wanted to fight it.
33:30The fact that he eventually agreed to plead guilty was due to the efforts of the Office of Public
33:35Prosecutions and his own lawyer. His lawyer indicated that if a jury saw those images and videos,
33:43that they would convict him of war crimes.
33:45He pled guilty of multiple counts of rape, sexual assault, intentionally causing injury and
33:55recklessly causing serious injury.
33:57I don't believe that Frank Hu chose to plead guilty in any way to be kind to these victims.
34:16But more likely for him to receive a reduction in his sentence.
34:20The offender received at least a 30 per cent discount on his sentence for pleading guilty.
34:37An immigration agent who used his position to drug and assault women has been sentenced to nearly
34:4830 years behind bars. This is Frank Hu, guilty of preying on women.
34:54You surreptitiously administered dangerous drugs to the victims in order to incapacitate them,
35:00rendering them defenceless and vulnerable. Your conduct was cold, calculated and repetitive.
35:05He was handed a 29-year sentence and will need to serve at least another 18 years behind bars
35:12before becoming eligible for parole. The migration agent committed nearly 70 rapes
35:17and almost 20 sexual assaults. One woman ended up in intensive care after suffering a cardiac arrest.
35:26If Frank put a little bit more powder in her drink, she probably wouldn't survive.
35:36He's very lucky she's still alive. If I reported him earlier, if I had been more brave,
35:46the poor girl probably wouldn't need to suffer. That's part of the reason I don't particularly feel proud of myself.
35:53All of the victims, whether or not they participated in the criminal justice process or not, were just so brave in enduring what they did.
36:07I mean, they simply accepted a job.
36:13And they went to their first day of work.
36:18There was an element of trust Frank had over these women, based upon his position as an older male, as a boss.
36:27They felt that they couldn't say no. He was in a similar position to an uncle or somebody who they felt like
36:37they had to do what they were told, even if it didn't feel right, which enabled him to continue his offending.
36:43It was the perfect crime because you have a victim who doesn't know that they've been a victim.
36:54A victim who has been administered, without their knowledge, a medication designed to cause amnesia.
37:02One of the most chilling factors for me as a doctor was seeing how many times the victims actually came
37:11to the attention of hospital emergency departments. And often they were brought in by the offender,
37:21who then would provide a narrative to the treating doctors and nurses for what had happened.
37:27Multiple victims attended very well-known hospitals around Melbourne and regional Victoria.
37:33And not once was toxicology or a sexual offence even sort of queried.
37:40As a medical doctor, that was such an eye-opener for me.
37:44If there was a patient that was a bit unwell or a bit drowsy or, you know, and had a lovely boss there
37:49telling me, you know, she was sick at work, you know, would I have questioned it?
37:53You know, I probably wouldn't have.
37:56In the event that something just doesn't sit right with you, just think toxicology.
38:01Maybe the answer might be there.
38:07Dominique Pellico pretended he was a loving family man, when in fact, he was a sexual deviant.
38:13His victim was his unsuspecting wife, Giselle, who he repeatedly, secretly drugged and then raped.
38:20But then Pellico also recruited more than 70 other men to join him.
38:32It is very similar to the Giselle Pellico case, where they were entitled to feel safe.
38:38They were with somebody who they trusted.
38:40This person chose to behave like this.
38:42This person chose to act in a criminal way.
38:45There's nothing these women have done to deserve this.
38:49Since this has occurred, we're hearing about other cases overseas.
38:54And I think that shows the frightening power of these drugs.
39:01So through global information sharing, drug facilitated sexual assault is just
39:08hitting a new level of sophistication.
39:10Taking in this case, someone having a cardiac arrest for it all to actually come to the surface.
39:21I'm so glad I took that call.
39:23I've never worked so hard in my life as I did for the months preparing all that information.
39:28I was pregnant at the time.
39:29And you just think, you know, if that was my daughter overseas, you know, and something like
39:34this happened to her, you just hope that she managed to cross paths with a Laurie Shanahan.
39:42Both Laurie and I were somewhat junior in the hierarchy of things at the time,
39:47and both grew significantly through this case.
39:50The dedication that he showed, which was just so infectious,
39:54is really one of the key things that led to such a satisfying outcome, I think, yeah.
40:01Could further charges be brought against Frank Hu?
40:04We do know that there's a lot of women who've been offended against,
40:07who were not able to be identified conclusively,
40:11who did not provide a statement, so whose matters weren't proceeded with at court.
40:16If people came forward now, we would absolutely take a statement from them,
40:20and we would definitely consider further charges against Frank Hu.
40:26I'm proud that this person is not in the community.
40:30This was someone who was not going to stop offended against international students from China.
40:38It's not every day you charge a serial rapist and get a conviction of 29 years.
40:45I know he's got 29 years to be rehabilitated,
40:52but I think he'll need all 29.
40:54when I was at the project as well.
40:56I think he will have been him for two weeks.
41:00I think he'll need a serious chance.
41:01Oh, look.
41:02This is the biggest challenge of the fact we've seen.
41:04I think, yeah.
41:05You're not going to be afraid of a case,
41:08but he'll need it.
41:10I think it is very nice.
41:11I think he'll need it.
41:12You're going to be afraid of a person.
41:14I'm only going to be afraid of the fact that you want to be afraid of this.
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