Arnold Saltner sentenced for grabbing two women‘s bottoms in Gladstone

A young man has been given a major wake up call after spending 20 days in custody, which a magistrate told him never would have happened if he’d done one simple thing.

A young man who was for assaulting two women in Gladstone has been lashed by a magistrate, who told him he would never have seen the inside of a cell if he’d simply shown up to court.

Arnold Saltner, 21, appeared in court via videolink, charged with two counts of common assault and other charges, including multiple breaches of bail and failures to appear.

Some of the charges dated back to late 2019, and the court was told he had essentially been on the run from police since 2020.

Saltner was finally arrested and denied bail, and spent 20 days in custody.

Police prosecutor Barry Stevens said the attitude Saltner had shown toward his requirements while on bail had been terrible.

“The defendant has shown contempt of this court or at the very least an apathetic attitude towards this court,” he said.

The two most serious charges were two counts of common assault, where he inappropriately touched two women in Gladstone.

On June 23, 2020, Saltner approached a 22-year-old woman in a Chemist Warehouse and grabbed her on her bottom before fleeing the store.

The next day, Saltner approached another woman in the Stockland Shopping Centre in Gladstone and told her “You’ve got a nice arse”.

After being told to “f-ck off” Saltner again grabbed the woman’s backside before fleeing the shopping centre.

Saltner pleaded guilty to all charges in the Murgon Magistrates Court.

Defence lawyer Alan Korobacz told the court Saltner had endured his first experience of incarceration and it came as a “shock” to him.

Magistrate Andrew Sinclair lashed Saltner’s attitude toward the court.

“This can’t be considered an early plea because you’ve been running around for nearly two years now,” Magistrate Sinclair said.

“You’ve found yourself in prison because you don’t seem to take responsibility to come to court and deal with these matters.

“I’ll make it very clear that if you’d come to court and dealt with these matters you wouldn’t have ended up in prison, there’s no way you would have ended up in prison.”

Saltner was placed on 12 months’ probation and no conviction was recorded.