A REGISTERED sex offender who failed to comply with his reporting obligations has also admitted to assaulting his former support worker.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The 30-year-old man appeared in the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to charges including unlawful assault.
The court heard in January, a personal safety notice was issued where the man's former support worker was listed as the protected person.
Read more court: Bendigo carjacking offender pleads guilty to 2020 attack
On June 9, the man was in the elderly victim's kitchen when he became verbally and physically aggressive.
The offender punched the victim in the genitals before grabbing him in a semi-headlock and pulling his hair.
The victim was able to flee the kitchen and call police but the offender left before officers arrived.
The man was arrested on June 11 and found with a small amount of cannabis. He was bailed to an address in the Bendigo area.
On the same day, an intervention order was issued with the former support worker listed as the protected person.
Under the order, the man could not contact the victim or go within 200 metres of his house.
The court heard on June 16, the man went to the victim's property and searched through his belongings while the victim told him to leave.
It was only when the victim said he would call the police that the offender fled.
Police attended the man's bail address on July 23 for a compliance check but the man was not at the property. The owner of the house told police he had kicked the man out.
The 30-year-old had never contacted police about his change of address, which breached his sex offenders register reporting obligations.
The offender visited the victim's home again on July 29 before police arrested him in the early hours of July 30.
Defence lawyer Deniz Yildirim told the court the man had a "hopeless situation" as he was homeless without any support despite his autism diagnosis.
Magistrate Patrick Southey said the man had been through the "revolving door" of prison and previous community corrections orders had not worked.
Mr Southey said he needed to protect the victim from the offender.
The magistrate chose to defer sentence for six months. He released the man on bail, with a condition that he does not contact or go near his former support worker.
Mr Southey said if the man complied with bail, he would consider his 18 days of pre-sentence detention as time served and there would be no further punishment.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark bendigoadvertiser.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter @BgoAddy
- Follow us on Instagram @bendigoadvertiser
- Join us on Facebook
- If you're a subscriber, join our subscriber-only Facebook group.
- Follow us on Google News