Man sentenced for indecently assaulting his co-worker while she slept

She slept on her flat's couch for months before she borrowed money to move out and buy a new bed. Photo / 123rf

A woman stayed on her couch for eight months, afraid to use the bed where a co-worker indecently assaulted her as she slept.

"No one should feel afraid to fall asleep," she said in her victim impact statement, read aloud to the Wellington District Court today.

The man responsible was sentenced today on one charge of indecent assault.

The woman's name is suppressed while the perpetrator's identity was also protected by the courts after name suppression was granted by Judge Peter Hobbs.

His attempts at a discharge without conviction on the grounds it would hamper his employment and travel opportunities, however, were denied by the Wellington judge.

He was instead sentenced to three months' community detention, as his victim sat quietly in the back of the court.

The two started seeing each other casually while working at a retail store in the capital in 2019.

Both were drinking with the victim's flatmates in March that year when they decided to go to bed.

Intoxicated and disorientated, the victim woke up in the early hours of the following morning to the defendant touching her inappropriately and without her consent.

He had covered her face with a pillow so she couldn't see him.

The bed where she was assaulted went unslept in for eight months after what happened, the victim opting instead for her flat couch.

She eventually borrowed money to move out of her flat and buy a new bed.

The man, aged in his early 20s, was set to face a trial for his offending in the next month but recently changed his plea to guilty, ending a three-year saga for the victim.

She did not believe his admission of guilt was him taking responsibility for his offending, but more an act of self-pity because he was charged with the crime he had committed, she said in her victim impact statement.

She had been formally diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and suffered nightmares and insomnia.

She now has a severe distrust of people and can't sleep without medication.

Despite accessing a small number of sessions, the waitlist for psychological help is 12 months and her mental health has since deteriorated causing her to drop out of university and develop suicidal thoughts, she said.

Defence lawyer Jane Parker said her client didn't want to shy away from the impact his offending had on his victim and his remorse was genuine and ongoing.

Her arguments for his discharge without conviction centred around job opportunities as a graduate, and the travel restrictions he would face with a criminal record.

She said he had done the right thing from day one including getting help through two psychiatrists and engaging with an organisation that works with offenders to prevent sexual abuse, which rendered him at a low risk of reoffending.

Crown prosecutor Tim Bain said it was a "twisted irony" the defendant had such readily available access to counselling while his victim waits for a year to get help.

Judge Hobbs said the man's victim was asleep and intoxicated at the time. She was vulnerable.

While denying the application for a discharge without conviction, Judge Hobbs granted the man's permanent name suppression despite the victim opposing the order.

He said naming the man would cause him extreme mental hardship and be "detrimental" to his rehabilitation.

The victim said through the prosecutor that permanent name suppression was likely to make it difficult for her to move on from the assault.