Steven Ray Meredith sentenced after groping girl, two more women at Byron Shire’s Splendour in the Grass festival
A Victorian concreter who groped a girl and two women at Byron’s Splendour in the Grass has been slammed by a magistrate, who applauded women “standing up for themselves”.
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Three festivalgoers including a 16-year-old girl were left feeling “disgusted and vulnerable” after a creep groped them at Byron Shire’s Splendour in the Grass music festival.
Steven Ray Meredith, 45, faced Byron Bay Local Court on Monday and pleaded guilty to three counts of sexually touching another person without consent.
Court documents state one of the victims – an 18-year-old woman – helped the concreter from the ground after he fell in a mosh pit at the event in July last year.
After gaining his footing, the father-of-three kissed the victim’s forehead and said “Thank you, darling” before touching her backside as he walked away.
Meredith from Morwell in Victoria was reported to security, but returned shortly after without his glasses on and violated two more victims, one an underage girl.
The 16-year-old was in the mosh pit when she felt Meredith touching her backside.
The teen’s friend screamed at Meredith before other festivalgoers pushed him away from the victim, the documents state.
Soon after Meredith targeted a 20-year-old woman by grabbing her backside and grinding against it.
The young woman elbowed the offender to try and get him away, but Meredith latched on and pulled her hips towards him.
A friend alerted security and they removed Meredith, who was then arrested by police.
Documents state Meredith told officers he did not know why he was being kicked out and he had no recollection of the incidents.
Police recorded statements from the three victims, who did not know each other. They were left feeling “disgusted, vulnerable, extremely uncomfortable and embarrassed”, the documents state.
In court, Meredith’s lawyer Tom Ivey submitted his client told him the victims “couldn’t be lying” so “he must have done it”.
“He was highly intoxicated and remembers kissing the first complainant on the forehead, but has a patchy memory of the events,” Mr Ivey said.
The lawyer argued Meredith did not know one of the victims was underage and assumed the event was for people over 18.
“It’s unlikely he’ll be at another festival,” he said.
Magistrate Karen Stafford described Meredith’s behaviour as that of a “sex pest” and likened him to a “cockroach”.
“You’re like a cockroach with lips and legs that they can’t get away from,” she said.
“These women were half or less than half your age … you were the age of one of the victim’s fathers,” she said.
“(The first victim) wasn’t your darling, she didn’t know you from a bar of soap … you can’t remember doing it, but I bet she does.”
Ms Stafford said each year she has dealt with fallout from Splendour, with men coming before the court for sexually violating women in the crowd.
“The message has to get out to men about what consent means. If this happened to women of my generation they may not have said anything,” she said.
“Women of this generation are standing up for themselves.”
Meredith was convicted, sentenced to a two-year community correction order and fined $9000.
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Originally published as Steven Ray Meredith sentenced after groping girl, two more women at Byron Shire’s Splendour in the Grass festival
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