Accused to fight ruling in sex case

A MAN found guilty of sexually assaulting a student in a hotel room near Ingham while she was sleeping has been handed a jail sentence but plans to appeal his conviction.

Simon Ronald Thomas Downing, 49, faced Townsville District Court yesterday to be sentenced for sexual assault over a December 2012 incident at the Trebonne Hotel where he went into the woman’s room and touched her sexually.

Downing was found not guilty of rape but guilty of sexual assault following a trial in March where he gave evidence he touched the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on the outside of her underwear.

The court heard Downing will appeal the conviction.

Crown prosecutor Dominique Orr said the difficulty in sentencing was that Downing had been acquitted of a burglary charge, relating to allegations he had entered the room without permission.

“The Crown case is and has always been that the entry into the bedroom was made without consent,” she said.

Downing continually shook his head from the dock while Ms Orr made her submissions.

The court heard that in 2016 a judge determined that Downing had no case to answer for the burglary charge and a charge of sexual assault.

In the March trial for the remaining charge of rape, the jury found him guilty of an alternate charge of sexual assault.

Defence barrister Scott Geeves submitted that an appropriate sentence for the father of seven would be 12 to 15 months with four to five months in actual custody.

The court heard Downing had two previous criminal convictions – one for masturbating in a video store in 1992 and one for a 1999 incident where he tapped on a woman’s window in the night and she found him masturbating outside.

Downing was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, to be suspended after he has served seven months.