Former HMAS Cerberus trainee air force chef Hayden Meurant sexually assaulted RAAF recruit sentenced

A former air force chef who forced himself on a RAAF recruit during a night out in Melbourne has been slammed for his “cowardly and dreadful” predatory conduct.

Hayden Meurant sentenced to a three year and six month CCO in a collaboration between Corrections Victoria and Corrections NSW.

A former air force trainee who sexually assaulted a RAAF recruit and threatened to smack a mate’s head to the ground if they didn’t cover and lie for him has avoided jail.

Instead, Hayden Meurant, who pleaded guilty to sexual assault and attempting to pervert the course of justice in March, has been given a special corrections order to allow him continue living and working on his stepfather’s farm in Orange, NSW.

In sentencing Meurant, 26, who appeared via video link in the County Court on Friday,

Judge Gerard Mullaly called the offending “cowardly and dreadful.”

“This offending calls for stern public denunciation – what you did was dreadful, self-centred and displayed little care for the frightening effect of your sexual groping of the victim,” he said.

“It’s cowardly and the moral culpability is high. You knew what you were doing was wrong.”

Meurant, the victim, and several other ADF members partied together in the city prior to the sexual assault at a city hotel in June 2019.

He had also been in contact with the victim via Facebook on the night, sending flirtatious messages including “(I’m) trying to pull you that’s about it … why can’t I just have you and show you what a real man does …”.

The court heard Meurant had taken MDMA on the day of the assault, before convincing the victim to return to the hotel to collect an item he had “forgotten”.

Judge Mullaly called this deception “a dreadful ruse”.

Once Meurant and the victim were alone in the hotel room, he “threw her onto the bed” before groping her and pushing himself onto her.

“She was in utter terror as she fought back hard. Clearly she was not at all interested in you,” Judge Mullaly said.

“There was no consent, rather, there was force.”

The victim said, in a statement previously read to the court, that all she wants to do is “forget”.

“I have been through every emotion imaginable including fear and anger …,” she said.

“The day it happened changed everything … (the experience) was horrible and terrifying …”

After the assault, Meurant attempted to cover his tracks, threatening a friend to back him up, messaging his girlfriend at the time to vouch he had been on the phone with her, and messaging the victim’s boyfriend saying, “If she says I did something, she’s lying”.

Judge Mullaly sentenced Meurant, who was discharged from the air force, to a three year and six month CCO, allowing him to continue living and working on his stepfather’s farm in NSW

“A solution has been found between Corrections NSW and Corrections Victoria,” he said.

“A CCO will be informally transferred from Victoria to Corrections NSW, so the local authority can supervise you.”

The corrections order requires Meurant to undergo assessment for treatment for mental health and drug and alcohol abuse, as well as requiring him to take part in sex offenders programs to reduce his risk of reoffending.

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