Aneshan Govender sentenced after molesting teenage girl in her front yard
An 18-year-old girl finishes work and drives home only to be followed to her front door and assaulted by a stranger high on marijuana. As a magistrate considers his punishment, he now says he thought the victim was somebody else.
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A 35-year-old Blackbutt man has apologised for leaving an 18-year-old girl in “immense fear” after he followed her up to her home, grabbed her and tried to kiss her in the dead of night.
Aneshan Govender was charged with sexual touching, unlawful entry on enclosed lands and not disclose identity of driver/passenger last August, after he followed a teen girl to her front door and tried to kiss her, in an event he said was “a misunderstanding”.
The father faced Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday, where Magistrate Jillian Kiely sentenced him to a nine month community corrections order, ordering he abstain from drugs and alcohol and complete a rehabilitation program which he’s been part of for the past four months.
“[It’s] certainly been established he has significant remorse,” she said.
“He’s hit rock bottom and is trying to get himself out of a hole.”
The incident that landed Govender in the hands of the law occurred just after 10pm on August 11, when the 18-year-old girl finished work and drove home to Shellharbour.
Once she parked the vehicle in front of her family home, she noticed a strange vehicle pull over to the side of the road and stop nearby, the court heard.
Once she turned off her engine and hopped out of the car, the car drove toward her, before performing a U-turn in a nearby cul-de-sac.
As she got to the front gate of her home, the car pulled up by her house. She rushed to the door to let herself in when she saw Govender walk toward her home, before he opened the gate and started running toward her.
Govender grabbed the panicked girl’s waist with both hands with “a firm hold so she couldn’t get away” and put his head toward her face.
The court heard the girl was terrified he was trying to kiss her and screamed out “Mum”.
As soon as her mother yelled back with “what”, the court heard Govender took off, jumping in the passenger seat of the vehicle and driving off.
The girl contacted police who launched an investigation. The car was found to belong to Govender, who presented to Lake Illawarra Police Station on August 12, after police made attempts to contact him.
In speaking with police at the station, Govender said the incident was just “a misunderstanding”.
“It was mistaken identity,” he told police.
“I thought she was a nurse I knew from the hospital. I was out at Shellharbour club and left to do some uber driving but I didn’t because I smoked some weed, I know I shouldn’t have.”
He also denied there was anyone else in the vehicle that night, despite witnesses reporting he had jumped in the passenger seat.
On Wednesday, the court heard Govender was in a rehab facility to try and kick his addiction issues, and that he didn’t remember much of the incident.
“He’s someone who has the capacity to be a productive member of society,” his lawyer told the court.
“It’s not insignificant he’s recognised how he would feel if someone did exactly what he did to his daughter or wife.”
In handing down her sentence, Magistrate Kiely said Govender had shown “significant remorse” and was “doing well” in rehab.
“It’s in the community’s interest that his rehabilitation continues in the way it has,” she said.
The court heard Govender is likely to remain in his current live-in rehab program, for at least the next five months.