Mark Smorti, who has pleaded guilty to indecent assault of young girl in Rundle Mall, has many excuses
He indecently assaulted a young girl in a Rundle Mall store, had child exploitation material on his phone and a school uniform. Now this repeat offender has tried to explain it all.
Police & Courts
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A repeat offender who indecently assaulted a young girl in a Rundle Mall store has told the District Court that he was just trying to move her to one side.
Mark Phillip Smorti has been housed in Yatala Labour Prison’s high dependency ward since he was arrested in September last year.
On Wednesday he told District Court Judge Liesl Chapman he had already been assaulted several times in prison.
Smorti was arrested on September 28 after indecently assaulting a young girl by touching her on the bottom near Kmart on Rundle Mall.
The young girl was near her mother when the assault occurred.
Smorti ran off and was arrested a short time later after police reviewed security footage of the scene.
His phone was found to contain child exploitation material and he was also in possession of a child’s school uniform.
Smorti pleaded guilty to all charges but in the District Court on Wednesday sought to excuse his behaviour.
“The school uniform was for a family member’s kid,” he said.
Smorti said the child exploitation material had downloaded automatically onto his phone as he used the internet.
As to the indecent assault, he admitted his excuse sounded “stupid”.
“I was moving her out of the way, she was blocking the aisle,” Smorti said.
“I know how stupid that sounds. I have my own truth but whatever (the prosecutor) says and charges me with I accept.
“Basically the way I wanted this to go was that I plead guilty to everything I was charged with and I would like to take responsibility for my actions.”
In 2013 Smorti was sentenced for similar behaviour, though the details were not read out in court.
“I did really well for six years,” Smorti said.
“All the charges I got charged with were all in one day and I spent a long time in prison.”
Prosecutor Tegan Mullan said that a notebook found on Smorti “shows clearly he has a prurient interest in children”.