Man Who Held Dozens Hostage in Sydney Suspected of 50 Sexual Assaults

Police in Sydney, Australia have stormed the Lindt Chocolate Cafe where self-described “sheikh” Man Haron Monis was holding dozens of people hostage, thus ending the siege that gripped horrified onlookers the world over for hours. But this was far from Monis’s first run-in with the law.

While events are still unfolding in Sydney, the Sydney Morning Herald was able to definitively report on those other times Monis acted antisocially. Like last year, when he was charged with being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife (a mother of two), who was stabbed to death and then set on fire. And then there’s this:

Most recently, he was charged with more than 50 allegations of indecent and sexual assault relating to time allegedly spent as a self-proclaimed “spiritual healer” who dealt with black magic at a premises in western Sydney more than a decade ago.

Monis has dismissed the charges as part of a “witch hunt” against him.

Between 2007 and 2009, Monis spent much of his time writing abusive and threatening letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers, a pastime that got him sentenced to 300 hours of community service. The Herald suggests that dissatisfaction with that sentence was what drove him to take hostages in the Lindt Cafe on Martin Place earlier today.