Ex-army man Jade Douglas Bingley gets suspended sentence after touching young girl in her home

A 12-year-old girl now “cries a lot and has trust issues” after an ex-army member and personal trainer inappropriately touched her in her home. But he won’t spend a day in jail.

A man has avoided jail after he touched a 12-year-old girl’s bottom and breasts through her pyjamas, which caused her to shakily leave the room and sleep on her mother’s bedroom floor.

A house party last year turned sour for a girl sleeping on a mattress in the living room late at night.

The party was winding down when Jade Douglas Bingley, then aged 34, noticed the girl on the mattress.

Jade Douglas Bingley

Chief Magistrate Catherine Geason detailed the events in court on Wednesday which led to Bingley pleading guilty to two counts of assault with indecent intent, and one count of indecent assault.

The magistrate said Bingley had shone his phone on the girl and asked to share her mattress.

“(She) could feel you breathing on her,” Ms Geason said.

“You moved closer to (her) so she moved away.”

Ms Geason said Bingley “held her tightly” around her breasts, over her pyjamas.

The girl “froze”, then shook him off.

But Bingley then put his hand on her bottom through her clothes and squeezed.

Ms Geason said the girl went to the bathroom, “shaking”, but she returned when she couldn’t find a spare bed.

Hobart Magistrates Court, Liverpool St. Picture: Richard Jupe, NCA NewsWire

“You then put your hand under her pyjama bottoms and on her bottom,” Ms Geason said.

The young girl went to the bathroom again. She chose to sleep on the floor next to her mum’s bed.

“It’s clear from the (victim impact) statement she is struggling to deal with what has happened,” Ms Geason said.

“She cries a lot and has trust issues.”

Ms Geason said the girl’s grades suffered and she had transformed from “confident, quirky” to “anxious and nervous”.

“Your behaviour, Mr Bingley, was outrageous,” Ms Geason said.

“There is no cogent explanation for your conduct.”

Jade Douglas Bingley

But Ms Geason noted the act was not premeditated or violent.

She said Bingley had his car broken into and was abused and menaced.

Ms Geason said Bingley was a “respected member of the community and an ordinarily industrious person” who had been in the army, was a personal trainer, had worked in outreach programs for the Aboriginal community and now worked at a dairy farm.

He has a partner and is expecting their first child.

“You do not have a history of this sort of conduct,” Ms Geason said.

The magistrate convicted Bingley on all charges and sentenced him to six months imprisonment, wholly suspended for two years.

Ms Geason placed his name on the community protection offender register and ordered him to pay $60 in victims of crime levies and $69.30 in court costs.