Bus offender gets jail for repeated attacks

A man indecently assaulted a sleeping passenger on a public bus while under intensive supervision for assaulting another woman on a bus.

Anton Rajadurai, who owns The Curry Pot Indian restaurants in Hamilton and Wellington, was sentenced at the Hamilton District Court last week to eight months' jail for indecent assault.

He groped the woman while he was under intensive supervision for similar offending, prompting calls for the supervision conditions to be tightened. Labour justice spokesman Charles Chauvel said the conditions should be toughened up to include electronic monitoring.

Rajadurai had been sentenced to 240 hours' community work and 18 months' supervision in March last year for indecent assault of a woman.

Intensive supervision is a rehabilitative community-based sentence for offenders who are assessed as having medium to high risk of re-offending. Conditions include counselling and reporting to a probation officer.

His application for permanent name suppression failed.

Cambridge police Sergeant Gordon Gratham said Rajadurai had been travelling on the Intercity overnight bus from Wellington to Auckland when he reached through a gap in the seat in front and touched a sleeping woman's breast repeatedly. She woke and told the driver, who called police.

The victim's impact statement said she was "incredibly angry" about the assault by a "menace to women" who preyed on and took advantage of others.

Community Probation Services general manager Katrina Casey said intensive supervision provided medium to high-risk offenders more opportunities for rehabilitation.

"These offenders are required by the legislation to report to their probation officer at least once a fortnight," she said.

- Herald on Sunday