A man has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in her home in Western Victoria while her children were present.
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Daniel Anderson, 25, pleaded not guilty in April to three charges of sexual assault.
Magistrate Ron Saines handed down his judgement at the Ballarat Magistrates' Court on Monday following the completion of the contested hearing.
He made me feel like my body was up for grabs, that he could do whatever he liked..... This feeling of dirtiness hasn't left me since that day.
- The victim
He said he found beyond reasonable doubt Anderson had touched the victim on the buttocks twice and on the breasts without consent in December 2018.
The victim said in a victim impact statement she had been struggling since the incident and had become highly anxious around males.
"He made me feel like my body was up for grabs, that he could do whatever he liked," she wrote.
"This feeling of dirtiness hasn't left me since that day. I feel that I'm yuck and my feelings around what happens to my body don't matter.
"My self esteem has been on the floor since then. I feel like I have no rights to my body. Nobody should have to feel this way."
The victim gave evidence during the hearing she had consensual sex with Anderson once in 2017 which she regretted and they had no contact since.
The victim said Anderson had contacted her in November 2018 to say he wanted to catch up with her and she made an excuse to avoid it saying her child had gastro.
The court heard the victim was at her home with her three young children when Anderson knocked on the door about 7pm, unannounced.
She said the fly screen door at the house was usually locked, but on this occasion she opened the main door and Anderson had already opened the flyscreen and was standing on the doorstep.
The victim said she felt like she was forced to let him in and felt uncomfortable.
The court heard they had a cigarette on the back veranda, when they finished they stood up and Anderson hugged her, put his hands onto her bottom and squeezed it.
The victim said she felt uncomfortable and moved away from him to ask her children in the backyard to come inside.
The court heard Anderson followed her, came up behind her and squeezed her buttocks, massaged her shoulder, put his hands around her to squeeze her breasts and attempted to kiss her neck.
Mr Saines said he found this contact was unwanted by the victim and it was made without consent.
The victim said she froze and felt apprehensive and fearful and felt like she could not make a scene because it would upset her children.
Anderson left shortly after and the victim walked him to the front door where Anderson tried to kiss her but she stepped back.
He said 'I'm coming back Friday and you better be home'.
Mr Saines said he found the victim's account was reliable and truthful and there was no reason it should not be accepted.
The court heard the victim contacted her counsellor, sister and police within an hour to tell them about what had happened.
Defence barrister Zoran Petric said a letter from Anderson's doctor provided evidence of his depression and anxiety.
Mr Petric said Anderson had no prior history of sexual assault and this was a 'one-off situation'.
"The risk of this type of reoffending is low," he said.
Mr Saines said any sexual offence was a serious matter and was punishable by imprisonment, but he considered this a less serious example of the offence.
"It appears to me it was clumsy rather than predatory conduct by you and there was no particular violence or predatory aggression associated with your offending," he said.
"The circumstances were worse for her because she was alone in her house with her children.
"She felt she was unable to run away or to cause a scene because it would have upset her children."
Mr Saines said it would be excessive to impose imprisonment.
He said he was satisfied treatment for depression, programs for sexual offending and unpaid community work as part of a community corrections order was an appropriate sentence.
Anderson also pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing cartridge ammunition without a licence.
The community corrections order will last for 18 months.
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