Truck driver Alan Hopkins breaches suspended sentence for groping young girl

A Sunshine Coast truck driver who avoided serving actual jail time for groping a young girl has been hauled back before the courts.

Craig Alan Hopkins leaving Maroochydore District Court on October 20, 2021. Picture: Kristen Camp

A Sunshine Coast truckie has avoided further jail time after breaching his suspended sentence for groping a young girl.

Craig Alan Hopkins was sentenced to nine months’ jail, suspended for 12 months at Maroochydore District Court in 2021 after he admitted to touching a young girl inappropriately.

Hopkins, who pleaded guilty to indecent treatment of a child and breaching bail at his first sentence, found himself sitting next to a girl in April 2020 when he indecently touched her.

Crown prosecutor Alex Stark said he stroked her leg with his hand five to 10 times before he moved his hand to her back.

Mr Stark told the court in 2021 that Hopkins, who was in his 40s at the time, placed his hand under her shirt, stroked her back and placed his other hand on her shoulder and pushed her forward.

Craig Alan Hopkins

The court heard the Gympie born man pulled at her sports bra three to six times, “hurting her” and removed his hand from under her shirt before he squeezed one of her breasts.

“She told him she wasn’t feeling well,” Mr Stark said during the sentence hearing.

The offending made the young girl cry and she told her mother what happened.

The truck driver initially said he may have “accidentally” rubbed her breast but later admitted that he had a “brain snap” and touched the young girl indecently.

Hopkins also admitted to breaching his bail after messaging the victim’s mother.

Judge Glen Cash said the complainant’s young age was a “serious circumstance” but Hopkins’ lack of criminal history worked in his favour.

Hopkins accepted he breached his suspended sentence.

He sentenced Hopkins to the suspended jail term and fined him $700 for breaching his bail with no conviction recorded.

The truck driver however appeared in Maroochydore District Court again in early May after he was sentenced in February for two counts of failing to comply with his reporting conditions, which breached his suspended sentence.

Court documents state the period of these offences was between September 25, 2022 and October 10, 2023.

Judge Jennifer Rosengren told Hopkins, who was now 50 with health issues, the operational period of his suspended sentence was going to be extended by four months.

In a published decision, the court heard Hopkins was still working in the trucking industry and lived in his truck.

Judge Rosengren told the 50-year-old it was important he understood his reporting condition because if he kept breaching them the court would start to have a “more and more dim view” of them.

“Try and stay away from the courts moving forward,” she told Hopkins.

“Right, thank you,” he replied.