Joseph Lemmens, 22, pleads guilty to groping teenage girl, 13, at Supercars post-race concert
A DRUNK apprentice diesel mechanic who molested a 13-year-old girl in the mosh pit at the Darwin Supercars post-race concert last year faces a potential further stint behind bars
Crime and Court
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A DRUNK apprentice diesel mechanic who molested a 13-year-old girl in the mosh pit at the Darwin Supercars post-race concert last year faces a potential further stint behind bars.
Joseph Lemmens, 22, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court on Monday to committing an act of gross indecency on a child.
Lemmens, an apprentice diesel mechanic, admitted in court he grabbed the girl by the skirt as she was wandering around looking for her friends, told her to put her phone away, held her up against him and groped her.
The girl tried to leave, but Lemmens put his hand under her skirt and inside her underwear.
The girl told Lemmens what he was doing was wrong and that she was 13, before one of the girl’s older friends intervened.
Lemmens later sent the girl a message on social media saying “don’t tell anyone”.
During a police interview, Lemmens denied having any contact with the victim, but when a detective showed him the message he sent the girl, he asked his support person to leave the interview room and admitted to groping her, but said he thought she was 16.
Crown Prosecutor Stephen Geary said Lemmens’s victim had suffered from nightmares, a loss of confidence and had been traumatised by Lemmens’s mates contacting her about the case.
Mr Geary said the week that Lemmens spent in jail on remand after he was arrested at work was not enough given the seriousness of his offending.
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“It’s not all about him, its about also … sending a message to the community, including his bullying friends that his behaviour is completely unacceptable and criminal,” he said.
Chief Justice Michael Grant said some of the character references, in which Lemmens’s mates vouched for him, “seem to suggest that to his friends, he’s continued to deny these allegations”.
Lemmens’s lawyer, Julia Ker, said: “Clearly, as an adult, Mr Lemmens had a responsibility before engaging in conduct of this nature, to ensure that the person with whom he was engaging was of legal age.”
Mr Ker said her client should not be registered as a child sex offender because his job meant he had to supervise apprentices, some of whom were under 18.
She said Lemmens, who was supported in court by his mum, sister and girlfriend, had “consumed a moderate amount of alcohol plus an ecstasy tablet” at the concert.
She said there was a “very real significance that attaches to a conviction for a sexual offence”.
Lemmens will be sentenced later this month.
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