Central Queensland University employee Grant Leonard Dobson sentenced for sexual assault

A Queensland university staffer was supposed to be helping a young learner driver “get her hours up” when things took a terrible turn.

Grant Dobson from Kingaroy.

A university employee who was supposed to be supervising an L-plater when he committed an obscene act as she drove has been sentenced.

Grant Leonard Dobson, 31, pleaded guilty in Kingaroy District Court this week to sexual assault.

Crown Prosecutor Christa Nicola said Dobson had engaged in sexual conversation with the victim before the offence took place, which led him to buy a vibrator for her which she said the victim “wasn’t interested in”.

“He had promised her mother that he would take her for a drive to assist in increasing her hours for her provisional licence,” Ms Nicola said.

“The defendant and the complainant were travelling in a car together, it involved him stroking her body for approximately five seconds using a sex toy known as a vibrator he purchased for her.”

The court heard Dobson touched her with the vibrator on the arm, leg and thigh area in what was a “clear breach of trust”.

“These acts were done without her consent,” Ms Nicola said.

“She did freeze in shock and she was scared and then he engaged with unsolicited sexual conversation with the complainant.”

Dobson’s lawyer Gregory McGuire, said his client was on antidepressants and had been attending counselling since the offending.

Mr McGuire said nothing untoward had happened before the incident.

The court heard Dobson recently moved to Townsville and worked for Central Queensland University as a disability support care trainer where he trained both students and teachers.

It is understood Dobson wasn’t employed at a university at the time of the offending.

Judge Glen Cash said it must have been “a frightening experience” for the victim.

He said according to the victim’s impact statement, the incident “affected her confidence and has caused continuing anxiety when she drives”.

Judge Cash sentenced Dobson to a recognisance order (good behaviour bond) for 12 months.

He explained that because of the lengthy amount of time it took for the matter to be resolved “punishment starts to lose its significance outside of the much more serious matters”.

“I don’t want the appearance that you can sexually assault someone and get a bond but you’ve got to fit it within the confines of a particular case,” Judge Cash said.

He accepted Dobson had worked to resolve any issues with counselling.

“In these circumstances, you’re really not the same person,” he said.

No conviction was recorded.