Roderick Conn: Tradie sentenced after sexual advances on client

A Melbourne tradie has been jailed after making unwanted sexual advances on a client and stealing her phone.

A Melbourne tradie who made unwanted sexual advances on a client has been jailed over his “concerning” behaviour.

Roderick Conn, of Werribee, faced the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday for sentencing after pleading guilty to more than two dozen charges.

The court heard he had been assisting an associate with renovations at her house on January 29 when he began making sexual advances towards her.

She asked him to stop, leading Conn to become “verbally aggressive” before leaving the property.

Later the same day, the 37-year-old woman sent him a text asking Conn to “pick up smokes”, to which he responded with “I’m not coming over for anything else but you to sit on my c…”.

The court heard she replied “fair enough”, leading to a miscommunication.

He returned to the house and began touching her leg, becoming angry when she told him she didn’t want anything sexual.

He told her he wouldn’t have come if he “wasn’t getting anything”.

According to prosecutors, Conn grabbed the woman’s phone out of her hands when he noticed she was trying to record him and “dragged” her back to the living room couch when she tried to run away.

He left the house, taking the woman’s phone with him.

The following day, she messaged Conn threatening to call police if he didn’t return her phone, only to be told: “breathe one more word about cops and you‘ll get your phone back as dust”.

His lawyer told the court the offending was “concerning” and occurred during the context of a drug addiction.

“The circumstance is they were known to each other, in the communication there’s been a misunderstanding,” he said.

“What he needs is assistance with his drug use.”

Magistrate Olivia Trumble agreed, saying “clearly there are issues that need to be addressed”.

Conn was jailed for a term of 10 months and will be placed on an 18 month corrections order upon his release.