Pensioner convicted of indecently assaulting cleaner

The 76-year-old man forced himself on a woman he had hired to clean his house during a terrifying ordeal, a court has heard

A South Grafton man has been convicted of the 2018 aggravated indecent assault of his cleaner.

A young woman's part-time cleaning job turned into a nightmare after her 76-year-old client forced himself on top of her, kissed her on the mouth and groped her genitalia during a terrifying assault more than two years ago, a court has heard.

Last week Witold Jozef Kuczynski faced Grafton Local Court where he was convicted of two charges of aggravated indecent assault - victim under authority of offender.

The court heard that in October of 2018 the victim placed an advertisement online on Gumtree for cleaning and gardening services in the Grafton and South Grafton area.

Kuczynski, identifying himself as Joe, contacted the victim requesting to hire the victim to do some cleaning and gardening at his South Grafton home.

According to court documents the victim cleaned the property once in October and again in November, with the arrangement appearing to work well and the victim paid in cash.

The court heard that on November 8, 2018, the victim returned to the property as agreed and began cleaning when Kuczynski said to the victim "you know I'm a lonely man" and asked her for a cuddle.

The victim said no, and Kuczynski moved forward and grabbed her in a hug, rubbing her up the back and said "this feels so good".

The court heard the victim told police she said lifted her arms and told Kuczynski to "settle" and pushed him away.

Court documents reveal Kuczynski continued to harass the victim as she attempted to clean the house. The victim told police that as she continued her work Kuczynski grabbed her on the shoulders and pushed her onto the bed. While on top of her the victim attempted to push Kuczynski off, who then touched the victim on the legs. The victim told police she could feel Kuczynski's penis on her leg.

The court heard the victim managed to get away from Kuczynski and went straight to the piano room, next to the bedroom, and began to cry. Kuczynski attempted to apologise, saying "you're a good young girl and I shouldn't have put you in that predicament".

Shortly after the victim's phone rang, and court documents reveal the victim told Kuczynski that it was her parents and that she had to go home. Kuczynski took his wallet from his room and gave the victim a $50 note as she sat in the chair, and said "it's $45 plus $5 if you give me a kiss", before he grabbed the victim on the vagina on the outside of her clothes with his hand and reached forward kissing her on the lips.

The victim pushed Kuczynski away and in an attempt to escape told him he would see him next week, before she ran home and told her parents what had happened.

Last week magistrate Kathy Crittenden sentenced Kuczynski to a 12 month intensive corrections order, with 100 hours community service.

In a statement to The Daily Examiner, Gumtree said the safety and security of the Gumtree community is our number one priority.

"Gumtree has zero tolerance for harassment to our community and we are deeply saddened to hear this has happened," the statement said.

"We encourage our users to utilise the 'user rating' feature to connect with safe and trustworthy community members. Any listing that could pose a threat to a community member is a breach of the Gumtree terms of use. Our community plays an important role in keeping Gumtree safe by using the 'Report Ad' function to ensure that any harassing users or listings are removed from our site."

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