Cleared of groping
A JUDGE yesterday quashed guilty verdicts for a former Deakin University student convicted of sexually assaulting two library workers at the Waurn Ponds campus.
Syed Qureshi, 21, cleared his name at the County Court in Geelong over the November 2017 incidents.
Mr Qureshi launched an appeal after being found guilty of four counts of sexual assault.
The charges related to allegations Mr Qureshi had touched the backsides of two women in the library on a single afternoon.
After evidence from multiple witnesses, Judge Sandra Davis said she could not exclude the possibility any touching may have been accidental.
“I’m not satisfied that there was any deliberate touching of the complainants by the accused beyond the possibility of any inadvertent touching,”
Judge Davis said. The court heard while the women felt contact on their bottoms when Mr Qureshi was behind them, they never saw his hand touch them.
The dismissal of the charges came after defence barrister John Desmond argued an “innocent explanation” could not be ruled out.
After the alleged assaults, Mr Qureshi was expelled from his biomedicine course at Deakin University. He has since continued his studies at a university in Melbourne.
A magistrate originally convicted the Williams Landing man and sentenced him to an 18-month corrections order, while placing him on the sex offenders’ register.
Each of those orders were cancelled after Judge Davis’ decision.
Mr Qureshi’s lawyer said the student was likely to seek compensation from the Chief Commissioner for legal costs.