A Creswick bricklayer pointed a stolen sawn-off shotgun at a woman and sexually assaulted her in what a judge has labelled a "degrading" and "humiliating" act.
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Nicholas Morse, 23, appeared in the County Court in Melbourne on Wednesday after a jury convicted him in August on two counts of sexual assault and one of being armed with criminal intent.
The jury could not reach a majority verdict on the rape charge, while they found him not guilty of assault with the intent to commit a sexual offence.
The court heard Morse pointed the gun at the woman and kissed her, squeezed her breasts and buttocks and thrust himself onto her in Redan in 2017.
He also used language Judge Howard Mason described as "insulting, degrading, demeaning, humiliating and capable of causing deep emotional hurt" to the victim.
The woman was terrified during the ordeal and tried to pull away.
Prosecutor Kristie Churchill said Morse pointing the gun at her was a "significant" aggravating feature of his crime.
Morse had a sense of bravado about him and boasted about bikie gangs and knuckledusters during the ordeal, the court was told.
However, defence lawyer Shane Kennedy asked the judge to spare his client jail, saying he was a young offender, with a solid work history and no prior convictions who had given up alcohol and would soon be a dad.
Mr Kennedy asked that Morse be jailed for two weeks - time he has already served in pre-sentence custody - so he can be immediately free to serve a community corrections order.
"It wouldn't be in the interests of the community that he be put back into jail," he said.
"For the purposes of denunciation, he should do a significant amount of (community work) hours."
Mr Kennedy said his client was now anxious about being in company of women he doesn't know and has become a "prisoner at home".
But the prosecution said the sentence requested by the defence fell short of reflecting community attitudes towards violence against women.
Ms Churchill added Morse's conduct was aggravated by the fear and intimidation he caused through using a gun and he had shown no insight or remorse.
Judge Mason agreed it was a serious offence.
This can't be dismissed as some momentary instance of touching this girl, it was repeated and sustained for some time. It was a very bad example of that type of sexual assault, be it under clothing
- Judge Howard Mason
Morse also pleaded guilty to stealing a sawn-off shotgun and shotgun cartridges and to three weapons charges.
He will be sentenced on Friday.
-AAP
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