A rapist masseur will spend more time behind bars, after an appeal court found evidence his crimes were sexually motivated "was overwhelming".
Weiqing Liu raped or indecently assaulted six women while working as a masseur at a traditional Chinese medicine clinic in Phillip.
A previous judge had found Liu's motivation was unclear, but on Thursday the ACT Court of Appeal disagreed and re-sentenced the rapist to about an additional two years.
The non-parole period was extended by 20 months with the total sentence coming in at almost five-years-and-six-months.
In 2023, Justice David Mossop handed down a nearly three-and-a-half year jail sentence, with 16 months to be served behind bars before the rest of the sentence was to be suspended.
Justice Mossop said he was "not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the offender was sexually motivated ... or [motivated] as a means of improving financial circumstances".
On Thursday, Chief Justice Lucy McCallum and Justice Louise Taylor found the previous judge had erred in not finding the crimes were sexually motivated.
"In our respectful opinion, the only reasonable inference from the facts on which the offender was sentenced is that his offending was sexually motivated," the appeal judgment states.
"The evidence that the offending was sexually motivated was overwhelming."
However, Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson disagreed and found the appeal should be dismissed.
The ultimately successful appeal was launched by former acting Director of Public Prosecutions Anthony Williamson SC.
Liu had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual intercourse without consent, and five counts of committing an act of indecency without consent.
Many of the charges were "rolled up", meaning some of the counts contained multiple instances of indecent assault or digital rape.
Liu committed the crimes while providing remedial massage services at a clinic between November 2019 and October 2021.
All of the women had been seeking remedies for injuries or ailments and, in one case, undergoing fertility treatment.
Liu will be eligible for parole in July 2026, and has been informed by the Australian Border Force that he will be deported to China upon his release.
