A WITNESS in the trial of a Rochester man alleged to have indecently assaulted an elderly woman has described her horror when she walked in on them during a nursing home visit.
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Jon Edgar Hewitt, 64, is accused of inappropriately touching the 88-year-old woman on three occasions in January and February 2012 while she was a resident at a northern Victoria aged care facility he regularly visited.
On Thursday, the jury in the Bendigo County Court trial heard opening addresses from the prosecution and defence and evidence from three witnesses.
It was alleged during one visit on January 28, 2012, the woman's niece saw Hewitt sitting very close to her aunt in her bedroom.
The niece said when she walked into the bedroom, Hewitt quickly pulled his hand away from her aunt and stood up, pulling the woman's floral dress down towards her knees.
"My auntie's legs were open, her dress was up around her waist and all her underwear was exposed," she told the court.
"To be honest, I was so stunned, I was appalled...I just sat there numb for a moment trying to process what I had seen."
The court heard the niece reported the incident and staff were instructed not to let the woman have male visitors in her room.
Several days later, on February 3, a nurse asked Hewitt to leave the woman's room and later saw him rubbing the woman's thigh from her knee to the top of her leg, causing her dress to bunch up.
In a third incident, Crown prosecutor Peter Jones told the court another employee saw Hewitt leaning over the woman with one hand resting on her knee and the other rubbing the inside of her arm near her breast.
Defence barrister Jo Swiney told the jury while the allegations were horrible, they were "just not true".
Hewitt has pleaded not guilty to three counts of indecent assault.