Jolly Joseph of Auburn convicted of assaulting woman, 18, on Sydney train from St James
Jolly Joseph, an Auburn father on a refugee visa, has been convicted of assaulting an 18-year-old woman on a Sydney train.
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A father on a refugee visa has been convicted of assaulting an 18-year-old woman on a train.
Jolly Rarichan Parambil Joseph, 40, from Auburn, was charged with indecent assault after he sat next to an 18-year-old woman and felt up her thigh on a Sydney train on 17 August 2018.
Last month, the woman, now aged 20, took to the witness box telling the court she was left “traumatised” after the incident.
She previously told the court she had been sitting near a window on a train from St James Station listening to music when Joseph sat next to her.
She told the court he had appeared to be asleep when he allegedly started using his left elbow in a “circular motion” to touch her breast.
The woman, who can’t be named as a victim of assault, then told the court Joseph took his backpack and put it on his left leg and on her right leg before he started touching her thigh.
“He started pinching and touching my right leg,” she previously told the court.
After demonstrating the motion, she told the court she got up and took a photo of the man before calling her father and getting off the train at Auburn station where she reported the incident to the station master followed by police.
Yet under cross examination, Joseph’s defence argued discrepancies in the woman’s first police statement and her evidence in court.
While her police statement made reference to Joseph’s elbow allegedly “pushing into her” and “moving slightly,” Joseph’s defence said there was no detail on his elbow on her breast as she alleged in court.
“It’s got nothing about the breast in here at all,” Joseph’s defence lawyer previously told the court.
Joseph, who had pleaded not guilty, fronted Burwood Local Court on Friday as his wife waited outside court.
Police prosecutor Tim Stirton submitted two further written submissions today from the officer who first took the woman’s statement which said the complainant did not indicate the defendant touching her breast, the court heard.
Yet Mr Stirton told the court that the woman’s evidence in court was an “elaboration” of that evidence.
“My submission is if there is a difference in her evidence it is not a difference but clarification and elaboration,” he told the court.
The prosecutor said the woman’s credibility shouldn’t be undermined because her reaction including taking a photograph of Joseph in the train showed an incident occurred.
“It’s the response of someone who has had something happen to them,” he told the court.
Yet Joseph’s defence lawyer Varinder Pawar rejected the woman’s evidence in court saying the touching of the breast allegation was not disclosed to police at the first instance and reflected badly on her credibility.
In her judgment, magistrate Alison Viney said the woman’s reaction was testimony to the “traumatic nature” of the event as she perceived it.
“One need only see her expressions in the CCTV footage to be aware of that,” she told the court.
She noted the woman’s evidence in court was 19 months after the incident and said her police statement was “not fatal” to her evidence as a whole.
Ms Viney said the “real question” was if the woman’s evidence and CCTV footage was sufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Joseph had committed the alleged offence.
She told the court the woman’s evidence was “compelling” and that the complainant was “young”, aged 18, at the time.
The magistrate said the woman was going about her “normal business” taking public transport home when one would expect to be safe.
Using the complainant’s evidence supported by CCTV footage, the magistrate told the court she was “satisfied” an act of indecency did take place on the train.
“I am satisfied the defendant did place his hand on her upper thigh and moved his hand in a deliberate pinching type action towards her crotch area amounting to an assault with an act of indecency,” she told the court.
“I find the offence proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”
When the magistrate asked if they were in a position to proceed, defence lawyer Mr Pawar told the court Joseph was married with one child. He said the father worked at Coles and was on a refugee visa.
Mr Pawar told the court that the offence was “below the mid-range” of seriousness and for the magistrate to consider a community corrections order (CCO).
Joseph was quiet wearing a blue striped polo shirt and jeans as he heard his sentence through a Malay interpreter.
Magistrate Viney told the court she took into account his previous “good character” hoping the same offence would not be repeated.
“It is abhorrent that young people women in particular can’t use public transport without being molested,” she told the court.
“But the reality is that for this woman every time now that she travels on public transport the threat of this happening again would be ever present in her mind.”
Joseph was convicted and directed to enter into a community corrections order for 12 months.
His wife smiled as she met up with her husband outside the courthouse as Joseph quickly held up a document attempting to cover his face from this reporter’s camera.
His defence has now lodged an appeal and the matter is listed before the Downing Centre in June.