Frankston creep Tyler Hurren jailed for Patterson Lakes assault with intent to commit sexual offence

A Frankston loser attacked an overseas acting student while performing a lewd act in a “brazen and violent” Patterson Lakes park assault.

A high school dropout intended to sexually assault an international acting student at a Melbourne park causing the frightened victim to flee the country.

Tyler Hurren, 21, was sentenced in the County Court on Thursday to a minimum 20-months’ jail after pleading guilty to assault with intent to commit sexual offence.

Hurren, an unemployed couch surfer, attacked his victim, aged in her 20s, at Kurrawa Linear Reserve in Patterson Lakes just after 8.30am on July 30 last year.

The victim, a student living with family in the south eastern suburbs while studying performing arts at the Victorian College of Arts, spotted Hurren following her through the park.

Hurren, wearing all black with a hood and a mask, sat on a park bench waiting for the victim to walk in his direction.

Hurren was masturbating when he got up and approached his victim and grabbed her from behind, the court was told.

The fiend put his hand over the victim’s mouth, scratched her face, pulled her down and held her on the ground.

“Do you want to f*** me,” Hurren barked at his frightened victim several times.

The victim pulled out her phone and accidentally took a screenshot which spooked Hurren causing the fiend to flee the scene.

The victim ran home and reported Hurren to police.

Police released CCTV and images in a bid to track Hurren down, the court was told.

A witness told investigators they eyeballed Hurren leaving a property at nearby Colac Crt.

Investigators tracked Hurren to a Dandenong property where the drug-addled was arrested on August 17.

Hurren gave a no comment interview and denied he was the creep depicted in the CCTV footage and stills.

Judge Trevor Wraight said Hurren’s offending was “inherently serious”.

“Your offending was brazen and violent,” Judge Wraight said.

“You attacked a young woman in broad daylight in a park who was simply walking in a space where she entitled to be safe … This was undoubtably a terrifying experience for the victim.”

The victim, in her victim impact statement, said she fled Australia after the attack and acting studies were placed on hold.

“Those months of facing trauma, anxiety and fear has left an indelible effect on me,” the victim said.

“It infuriates and upsets me to know that such a brief moment in my life has caused many months of suffering and left a permanent scar in me.”

The court heard Hurren, who appeared via videolink from Hopkins Correctional, grew up in Frankston and dropped out of Western Port Secondary college in Year 11.

Hurren was jailed for a maximum three years.

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