The complainant told his mother about the sexual assault allegations after she had collected him from the accused man’s house in November 2017.

The 58-year-old man, who The Courier has chosen not to identify, was on Thursday committed to stand trial in the County Court.

While giving evidence at the Ballarat Magistrates Court, the complainant’s mother agreed with defence barrister Jacob Kantor’s suggestion the accused took the boy to Lake Werribee on November 18.

When the mother arrived at the accused house to collect her son, she said she had no concerns about the accused.

But she said the accused wanted her son to stay the night at his house to take him on another fishing trip the next day, to which she refused.

“I said ‘no’ because I didn’t know this man,” the woman said.

She said she allowed two other people to pick up her son on November 19 to go fishing with the accused, while she went to work. 

The mother told the court she arrived at the accused house at 6pm to collect her son and he was happy because he had caught a fish.

But while walking home, the boy asked his mother if he could tell her something and “could you please promise me you don’t get angry at me?”.

The mother said her son said he was at the beach sitting at the wall when the accused put his hand up the boy’s shorts.

She broke down in court and was struggling to breath when she said later at a friend’s house, she “couldn’t hear her baby talking about what happened to him”, so she left the room.

She said she later learned the alleged sexual assaults started during the first fishing trip on November 18, with the accused touching the boy’s leg despite him saying “stop”.

Sitting in the front row of the court room, the man placed his hands over his head while the mother became emotional.

Magistrate Ron Saines committed him to stand trial in the County Court, saying there was evidence of sufficient weight for a properly instructed jury to return with a guilty verdict.

The man pleaded not guilty to five counts of sexual assault with a child under 16. He has also been charged with two counts of grooming for sexual conduct with a child under 16.

A number of other witnesses gave evidence at the committal hearing when it started on Tuesday.

The accused man’s bail was extended until a direction’s hearing at the Victorian County Court in January. 

One of his bail conditions includes to live at a Ballarat East address.

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