Navy sailor Rohan Hitch pleads guilty to groping women at Hobart’s Telegraph Hotel
Leading Seaman Rohan Hitch grabbed two women on the crotch and one on the buttocks ‘willy nilly’ at a pub in Hobart.
Canberra Star
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A self-described “idiot” navy sailor grabbed two women on the vagina and one on the buttocks at a pub in Hobart, begging them both to “come home with me” when his ship visited Hobart last year.
Leading Seaman Rohan Hitch, then on Sydney-based HMAS Newcastle, pleaded guilty on Monday to committing three acts of indecency without consent at the Telegraph Hotel in Hobart in August last year.
The married sailor agreed he groped the women “willy nilly, not caring whether the (women) consented or not”.
He also agreed his conduct was “so offensive to contemporary standards of modesty or decency as to be indecent”.
Prosecuting officer Major Warren Nazzari said Leading Seaman Hitch walked up to his first victim, who was waiting at the bar, and said to her: “You’re coming home with me tonight”.
The woman squirmed away, only for leading Seaman Hitch to grab her on the buttocks, prompting the woman to again tell him to “get off” her.
Leading Seaman Hitch then put his hands between the woman’s legs and touched her vagina, prompting her to leave the bar and begin crying.
Later the same night, Leading Seaman Hitch’s second victim “felt a hand reach between her legs … in a sweeping motion from behind”, Major Nazzari said.
The next day, Leading Seaman Hitch sent messages to one of the women saying: “I understand why you’re pissed” and: “Heard what happened. Sorry, I am an idiot. I understand why you’re pissed”.
Defence force investigators later seized Leading Seaman Hitch’s phone.
The sailor was set to contest the charges at a trial this week, but entered an eleventh-hour guilty pleas on Monday morning.
Defence Force Magistrate Brigadier Michael Cowen QC is expected to sentence Leading Seaman Hitch on Tuesday.