A 23-year-old man wrongly locked up on Sunday by police who suspected him of stalking and assaulting teenaged girls says he barely slept or ate while incarcerated and ended up questioning whether he really was the culprit.
Joey De Mesa, of Minchinbury, was released from custody late last night after police received forensic test results clearing him and applied to a Supreme Court judge to have him set free.
NSW police, who released CCTV footage of Mr De Mesa in connection with the crimes, have now applied for 11 charges relating to sex attacks on six teenaged girls is Sydney's west between April and June this year to be dropped.
Mr De Mesa said he went to Mt Druitt police station in good faith on Saturday evening after friends and relatives recognised him from the footage broadcast on television news reports at the weekend.
To his horror, instead of ruling him out as a suspect, police arrested and charged him, he said.
"I just didn't know what to do, I was in terrible shock," he said.
"They treated me as guilty. They all believed that it was me."
Mr De Mesa, who works six days a week at a greengrocer in Edgecliff, said he protested his innocence but was held overnight in a cell by himself at a Penrith Court holding facility.
'I was at work'
"I said I have got records at work that show that I was at work but they didn't do any research," he said.
"It was really really bad. I didn't know what to do. I had given up hope. I felt that no one was going to believe me.
"I felt that it was really going to be me that they were going to lock up [for good]."
Mr De Mesa said his court appearance on Sunday, where he did not receive bail, compounded his distress.
He said a lawyer advised him that he wouldn't be able to get bail.
"I had never been to a court before. I was just so confused and shocked," he said.
"[Police] made me think that it was me, that I'd done all these things, so in my mind I had to go through it [to] think whether I really did rape anyone or not. That's how much they put it on me."
Mr De Mesa said he was overwhelmed with relief when he was finally told last night that he was no longer a suspect and despite the ordeal, felt no anger towards police.
"I was just thinking about my parents, I was going to give them a hug and let them know that their son didn't do this," he said.
'[Police] were just doing their job but [from] what I can see they didn't do their job properly, they didn't do any investigations, they just wanted to close the case on an innocent guy, which they've done, but I'm not mad at them."
Not unusual
Erik Jensen reports: A spokeswoman for State Crime Command, Wendy Valois, said the forensic analysis was accelerated but it was not unusual to arrest a suspect before such analysis had been done.
"It was extremely compelling evidence [on which he was arrested],'' she said.
"Yes, we hadn't done the forensic analysis. But you have to weigh that up against the risk that that person may pose to the public if we release them.''
The analysis, which cleared the suspect of wrongdoing, was received by police about 6pm last night. By 10.30pm an on-call judge had been called into Supreme Court and the man was released.
He had been in custody since 8pm on Saturday, when he arrived at Mount Druitt Police Station. He was interviewed overnight and charged on Sunday morning.
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