Jarmal Richard, 54, guilty of sexual assault, upskirting, stalking

A victim of a personal trainer found guilty of sexual assault and upskirting has told a court she felt stripped of her dignity and self-worth by his actions.

Jarmal Richard. Picture: Facebook.

A court has heard from the victims of a personal trainer who took thousands of upskirt photos of his clients.

Jarmal Richard, 54, appeared in Geelong Magistrates’ Court on Friday for a plea hearing after he was found guilty by Magistrate Urfa Masood of sexual assault, seven counts of stalking and four counts of upskirting following a lengthy contested hearing earlier this year.

The Winchelsea man was acquitted of a further charge of stalking.

The stalking took place between June 2021 and June 2022, the upskirting between December 2021 and June 2022, and the sexual assault occurred on December 31, 2021.

The court heard Richard took “thousands” of photos of the victims, many capturing their genital and anal areas during personal training sessions at his home gym.

Reading her victim impact statement to the court, one woman described feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt and a “wave of embarrassment”.

Another victim, who also read her statement, said she felt ashamed, describing the crimes as “degrading, humiliating and disempowering”.

“I used to pride myself on being a good judge of character, but in this case I was so wrong,” she said.

“I feel I have been stripped of my dignity and self-worth, and violated in a deeply personal way.”

Prosecutor Matthew Fisher read the statements of two other victims; in one a woman said she still wanted to cry whenever she thought about what happened.

A fourth woman, who was the victim of the sexual assault, described feeling numb amid “weeks of sleepless nights”.

“No sentence can undo what has been done … my sense of self was stolen that day,” the woman wrote.

“Physically I’m okay, but the emotional scars are deeper … I am not the same.”

Two further victims opted not to have their statements read in court.

Mr Fisher told the court Richard should serve time in prison.

He argued Richard’s conduct was persistent, constituted a “gross breach of trust” and consisted of “humiliating, degrading and disgusting” offences that were committed for his own sexual gratification.

Richard’s lawyer, Penny Marcou, asked the court to impose a non-custodial sentence, given he had no criminal history, was found to be a low risk of harm and was otherwise of good character.

“This is an unusual case … and it’s a difficult sentencing process,” Ms Marcou said.

A community corrections order, if properly tailored, could satisfy the relevant sentencing purposes, Ms Marcou argued.

She told the court there was “no evidence” of a sexual motivation of the stalking and Richard had not intended any of the victims harm.

The court heard Richard had faced extra-curial punishment through media coverage and lost much of his livelihood, with his personal training business now “defunct”.

Ms Marcou also raised the issue of hardship.

The court heard Richard’s wife is terminally ill, however Ms Masood said she needed more information to make a determination on that factor.

Richard will be sentenced on November 6.

Originally published as Jarmal Richard, 54, guilty of sexual assault, upskirting, stalking