A man originally sentenced to 18 months in prison for sexually assaulting two women at a Bachelor’s and Spinsters (B&S) Ball near Skipton in 2017, has escaped jail on appeal.
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Blake Connor Dean, 19, appeared in the County Court at Ballarat on Monday appealing the jail term and 12-month non-parole period imposed on March 5, after he plead guilty to two charges of sexual assault against two women at a B&S Ball on the Glenelg Highway on December 9.
The court heard Dean had inappropriately touched and tried to kiss one woman and then lay on top of another woman in a tent, pinning her down and assaulting her.
County Court Judge Elizabeth Gaynor took into account Dean’s age, lack of prior offending, his autism spectrum diagnosis and his commitment to alcohol treatment and imposed a 150-hour community corrections order, including drug and alcohol counselling conditions.
“This is a one-off,” Judge Gaynor told Dean.
“You have to be very careful.”
