Launceston Library sexual offender Ashley William Baverstock found guilty of indecent assault

An “opportunistic” sex offender with a tendency to approach and assault young women at libraries has been found guilty of two assaults against a young intellectually disabled woman.

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AN OPPORTUNISTIC library loiterer with a penchant for vulnerable young women has been found guilty of the indecent assault of a young, intellectually disabled woman in Northern Tasmania.

Ashley William Baverstock, 57, pleaded not guilty to three counts of indecent assault and one count of aggravated sexual assault in the Supreme Court in Launceston.

A jury on Thursday found him guilty of two indecent assaults against the woman: one at Launceston Library and one her unit in a monitored care complex the same day.

Baverstock was found not guilty of two other charges.

The court heard he approached the woman while she was reading in the library in May 2017 and spoke with her briefly before rubbing her breasts and vagina.

He denied the allegation to police saying he gave her a cuddle and would often “steal cuddles” from people at the library.

Baverstock told the officers he had learnt to keep his hands to himself because he had “been through all of this before”.

The court heard he went to the woman’s house at 8pm that night and they drank camomile tea together.

The jury found Baverstock touched and pinched the woman’s breasts and vagina before leaving the unit, but was not guilty of further assault allegations.

Baverstock told police the woman had invited him to her home, but she told the court under cross examination that was a lie and she “did not like him”.

The court heard the offender knew where she lived because they had met at the complex before when Baverstock was visiting a friend.

The woman’s psychologist Carly Edmunds told the court her client’s disability caused her difficulty understanding relationships, her emotions and other people’s expressions of emotion.

Crown prosecutor Virginia Jones said Baverstock’s criminal history included “all manner of offending” across four states from 1983.

Launceston Supreme Court.

He was convicted of touching the breasts of two teenagers on separate occasions at another Tasmanian library in 2005.

He was convicted of wilful and obscene exposure in Victoria in 1997 and committing an indecent act with a child and stalking in 1999.

Defence lawyer Patrick O’Halloran will seek a Centrelink document to prove his client was approved for a disability pension due to a psychological condition before sentencing.

He said his client had a history of “opportunistic and spontaneous over the clothing touching” and whether or not he was invited to the young woman’s unit, he had a “clear lack of judgment morally and legally”.

Justice Robert Pearce said a prison sentence was likely and sought a pre sentence report.

Baverstock was remanded in custody to appear on December 3.