Church sex attacker Paul Jelonek jailed for assault on US tourist
A man in the grips of a drug-induced psychosis carried out a shocking act against a US tourist in a Melbourne church.
WARNING: Explicit language
A man in the grips of a drug-induced psychosis said “hello sweetheart” to a US tourist moments before he sexually assaulted her in the middle of a Melbourne church.
Paul Jelonek was sentenced to one year and 10 months behind bars and a two-year community corrections order in the County Court of Victoria on Thursday over the assault on June 17, 2019.
“This was a terrifying experience in vulgar circumstances in a public area of refuge,” County Court judge Howard Mason said of the offending.
The 49-year-old approached the woman as she sat in the front pew at St Paul’s Cathedral in Flinders Street about 3.30pm.
Jelonek sat next to her, put his arms around her shoulders and said: “hello sweetheart” before he told her to “suck my d**k”.
The woman fled but the perpetrator followed her, grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her back against the wall of the cathedral.
He forced her head towards his genitals and when she struggled lifted his clenched fist above her.
“Suck my d**t you c**t,” Jelonek said as he exposed himself and performed a lewd act.
The woman screamed and was able to flee, but Jelonek chased her with his genitals exposed. A security guard and members of the public stepped in to help.
“I had to do it … you don’t understand,” Jelonek told the guard.
He was kicked out of the church, and police arrested him shortly after at the Collins and Spencer streets intersection.
“I went there and assaulted and violated people,” Jelonek told the police officers who arrested him.
He had no memory of the incident, but the court was told he had heard “the voice of God” who directed him to do “bizarre things”.
Jelonek, who was homeless at the time, reacted with “shock and disbelief” when he heard the impact of what the victim went through.
At the time Jelonek was in a drug-induced psychosis and had been injecting ice for several days before the shocking sex assault, the court was told.
He had no history of sexual offending, and there was no evidence of a “predilection” for sexual offending, Judge Mason said.
The judge noted the offending also involved a “publicly disgusting act” but said it was of short duration.
He was jailed for 22 months on Thursday but has already spent 642 days in custody for the offences. He is due to be released in less than a month when the community corrections order will apply.