serial offender

After serving 18 months for posing as a woman to lure men into sex, man immediately does it again

Some people never learn.

After serving 18 months for sexually assaulting not one, not two, but five men after posing online as a woman, a Melbourne man is officially headed back to prison for doing the exact same thing less than three months after being released.

Last Christmas, serial catfisher Peter Valsamakis tricked an unnamed 21-year-old man into coming over to his house by making him think he was meeting up with a woman.

Valsamakis pretty much used the same play book as before. After exchanging several texts and photos on the dating app Skout, he invited the victim over, but insisted he blindfold himself before entering the house.

With his eyes covered, the victim was brought inside and sexually assaulted, prosecutor Andrew Sprague said in court this week.

Halfway through the assault, the victim removed the blindfold from his face after sensing something wasn’t right. When he saw Valsamakis, he exclaimed, “Are you f*cking serious?”

The victim jumped up and punched Valsamakis, who responded by picking up a nearby flower pot and threatening to bash it over his head.

The incident happened just 75 days after Valsamakis had completed his prison sentence for a near identical crime.

In 2018, he was sentenced to 18 months for posing online as a woman named “Michelle” and luring five unsuspecting men over to his home, blindfolding them, and performing sex acts on them under false pretenses.

After serving over 500 days behind bars, Valsamakis was released, but he was brought back not long after his release for breaking his parole.

Yesterday, Valsamakis’s attorney, David Swan, said his client feels “ashamed” of his behavior then tried arguing that he only grabbed the flower pot after he felt threatened by the victim he  was in the middle of sexually assaulting, to which Judge Patricia Riddell responded, “What does he expect is going to happen when this man discovers it’s not the woman he saw photos of?!”

Swan also argued that Valsamakis, who is 44, still suffered from the trauma of being bullied at school as a kid and being rejected by his family members.

But Judge Riddell was unmoved, calling Valsamakis’s behavior “frustrating” after he had already served prison time for doing the exact same thing five other times and had not made use of the support services offered to him.

Valsamakis will be sentenced later this month.

Don't forget to share:

Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...

We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated