Convicted abuser avoids jail

A MAN has avoided jail after he touched a 12-year-old girl’s bottom and breasts through her pyjamas, which caused her to shakily leave the room and sleep on her mother’s bedroom floor.

A house party last year turned sour for a girl sleeping on a mattress in the living room late at night.

The party was winding down when Jade Douglas Bingley, then aged 34, noticed the girl on the mattress.

Chief Magistrate Catherine Geason detailed the events in court on Wednesday which led to Bingley pleading guilty to two counts of assault with indecent intent, and one count of indecent assault.

Ms Geason said Bingley had shone his phone on the girl and asked to share her mattress.

“(She) could feel you breathing on her,” Ms Geason said. “You moved closer to (her) so she moved away.”

Ms Geason said Bingley “held her tightly” around her breasts, over her pyjamas.

The girl “froze”, then shook him off.

But Bingley then put his hand on her bottom through her clothes and squeezed.

Ms Geason said the girl went to the bathroom, “shaking”, but she returned when she couldn’t find a spare bed.

“You then put your hand under her pyjama bottoms and on her bottom,” Ms Geason said.

The young girl chose to sleep on the floor next to her mum’s bed.

“It’s clear from the (victim impact) statement she is struggling to deal with what has happened,” Ms Geason said.

She said the girl had transformed from “confident, quirky” to “anxious and nervous”.

Ms Geason described Mr Bingley’s behaviour as “outrageous”, but said he had no history of that sort of conduct.

The magistrate convicted Bingley on all charges and sentenced him to six months imprisonment, wholly suspended for two years.