WELL-KNOWN Bendigo man Claude Critchley has been handed a suspended prison sentence for inappropriately touching two teenage girls and repeatedly breaching intervention orders.
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Critchley – who walks about 10km through Bendigo’s streets each day – was given a one-month jail term, wholly suspended for three months.
Magistrate Frank Jones warned Critchley that if he reoffended he would be sent straight to prison.
Bendigo Magistrates Court heard Critchley, 57, approached two girls at a local football club in July last year and told them they had “nice legs”.
He then leaned back in his chair and placed his hands on the girls’ thighs.
Prosecuting, Sergeant David Somerton said Critchley told the girls he would “do 30 years in jail if he raped them”.
Critchley pleaded guilty to charges of unlawful assault against the two girls, as well as breaching multiple personal safety intervention orders. The court heard he had a history of ignoring intervention orders taken out against him, and had had 16 breaches against his name.
Defence counsel Peter Baker said his client suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and had an intellectual disability.
Mr Baker described Critchley as a “man who wanders the streets talking to everyone” and said he found it difficult to determine what was, and wasn’t appropriate behaviour.
“He’s acted stupidly,” Mr Baker said, referring to the incident where Critchley touched two girls on their legs.
“But his intentions were harmless. He certainly didn’t mean anything untoward.”
A number of social services staff and Bendigo business people gave evidence to the court, saying that Critchley was a mostly gentle person who battled with paranoid fantasies inside his own mind.
Former Bendigo citizen of the year and advertising executive Robert Cook said Critchley was a dear friend of his who required ongoing psychiatric support.
“Sometimes he’s lovable and nice, other times I have to throw him out of my office,” Mr Cook said.
“He has highs and lows.”
Jimmy Possum owner Margot Spalding said Critchley was a regular visitor to her family’s home.
She condemned his actions toward the two girls as “foolish and unacceptable”.
Mr Jones said the community corrections order issued in March last year had failed to act as a sufficient deterrent in preventing repeated breaches of intervention orders.
“I’m running out of options,” he said to Critchley. “You will go to jail if you re-offend.”
