"Every person is entitled to go out socialising without being lusted or leered at"

Wednesday 19 December 2018

A man has become a registered sex offender and sentenced to community service after placing his friend’s hand on a woman’s bottom whilst out drinking over the summer.

Liam Moon (28) was sentenced for indecent assault after he used his friend’s hand to touch a stranger on the “top of her thigh and backside” whilst he was out at a pub earlier this year.

The 28-year-old appeared in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday after pleading guilty to indecent assault.

Pictured: Liam Moon was sentenced in the Magistrate's Court yesterday for indecent assault.

Crown Advocate Chris Baglin told the Court that the incident took place on 28 July this year when Moon was out drinking with some friends in St. Aubin’s Wine Bar. According to the woman who made the complaint against Moon, at around 20:30 that evening, “he made a comment” about her “to the effect of: ‘look at that ar**’.”

Later on, both Moon and the woman had ended up at the Trafalgar pub separately, when CCTV cameras captured him grabbing “his friend’s arm” and “using that to take hold of the top of [the woman’s] thigh and backside."

The Court heard that the woman turned around and challenged Moon, allegedly saying: “You can’t do that” to which he reportedly replied: “What are you going to do about it? We can do what we want.” 

The woman reported the incident to bar staff that evening and the following day made a complaint to the Police.

Defence Advocate Mike Preston said that his client agreed with the version of events put forward by Advocate Baglin, however there was some “dispute in relation as to what was said.”

Pictured: The incident was captured on CCTV footage at The Trafalgar in St. Aubin (Google Maps).

Nevertheless, Advocate Preston told the Court that Moon has “genuine remorse for what he’s done” and that “it was an ill-judged, stupid, boorish act," the consequences of which have been a “valuable lesson in respect."

Having heard the case, Assistant Magistrate Peter Harris sentenced Moon to 90 hours of community service as well as placing him on the Sex Offenders’ Register for a period of two years. Moon will have to wait until November 2020 to apply to be removed from the register.

Passing down his sentence, the Assistant Magistrate warned Moon: “Every person is entitled to go out socialising without being lusted or leered at and certainly without being assaulted.”