By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
AN 18-YEAR-OLD man has been told he won’t be jailed after pleading guilty to two assaults on women in their beds after a drunken New Years’ Eve party in Clyde North.
About 7.30am on 1 January, the man had entered the neighbour’s home through a broken roller door and knelt beside her as she lay next to her sleeping husband, Dandenong Magistrates’ Court was told.
The accused then intimately touched her with his fingers under the bed sheet in what magistrate Jack Vandersteen called a “higher end” sexual assault.
“Even in the County Court, that’s a high end sexual assault.”
The man sat in court next to his fiance – who was the mother of their nine-month-old daughter. They live with the man’s parents, who have moved from Clyde North since the offences.
In a separate incident, about 6am on New Years’ Day, another woman woke to find the accused lying next to her in a “spooning position” with his arm resting underneath her breast.
At the time, her intoxicated boyfriend was passed out elsewhere in the house.
When she realised the accused wasn’t her boyfriend, she asked: “Who’s this?”
The man – who was unknown to her – replied: “Shhh, go back to sleep” and snuggled into her, the court was told.
Mr Vandersteen said he was surprised the man was charged with a common law assault, and not a second count of sexual assault, for the latter incident.
During the night, revellers had been invited into each other’s houses, the court was told.
The man’s lawyer said the party-goers “became friends” and were drinking heavily during the night. It was “come and go as you please”, and the first time the accused from a “God fearing family” had been significantly intoxicated.
Mr Vandersteen said: “You can see why he’s coming and going. He’s seeking opportunity.”
The lawyer replied: “I wouldn’t put it like that. He was drunk as a skunk.
“It’s ludicrous behaviour. If he was looking to seek an opportunity, they’d probably pick a better time than when she is in bed with her partner.
“He is drunk to his eyeballs and doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
The accused – with a “deep sense of shame” – was described by work-mates and family as friendly, generous, smiling, courteous and respectful, the lawyer said.
Mr Vandersteen ordered the man to undertake a community corrections assessment, including a report on whether more than alcohol lay behind his offending.
The man avoided jail because he was very young, had no relevant priors and pleaded guilty, avoiding a lengthy hearing for the complainants.
“This is at a high end of seriousness. You violated by touching these women in a way that was uninvited.
“There’s no way you’d tolerate that your daughter would be touched this way by another man.
“He’s very lucky it’s not a more serious charge.”
The man will next appear at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 5 August.
