A PERSISTENT and predatory peeping Tom who graduated from prying through women's windows and masturbating to grabbing a woman pushing a pram and trying to drag her into bushes has been jailed for a maximum of 20 months.
Former abattoir worker Esera Vaini Felise, 22, who targeted four women in Singleton Heights between April and May last year, will likely be deported back to Samoa when he is released on parole in August, Singleton Local Court has heard.
Vaini Felise, who was living in Oldknow Crescent at Singleton Heights before his arrest in June, had pleaded guilty to seven charges, including sexual touching and carrying out a sexual act without consent.
According to court documents, a woman was at a home on Wilcox Avenue at Singleton Heights about 7pm on April 4 when she saw Vaini Felise at her back door committing a sexual act.
On the night of April 22, Vaini Felise was spotted peeping into a woman's unit in O'Halloran Avenue at Singleton Heights and returned again two days later to do the same thing.
On April 24, Vaini Felise also exposed himself and masturbated in front of a woman on an underground walkway near Wilcox Avenue.
And then on May 16, Vaini Felise's sexual acts escalated to the point he grabbed and groped a woman pushing her baby in a pram along a walkway off Heather Place.
The woman, 27, said Vaini Felise approached from behind and put his hands down her pants and inside her underwear. The woman pulled his hands out of her pants, but Vaini Felise grabbed her wrists and started dragging her towards nearby bushes.
She managed to break free of his grasp, but as she was fleeing Vaini Felise pulled out his penis and began waving it around.
"That would have been a horrific experience for a woman with a young child," Magistrate Kevin Hockey said on Wednesday.
Solicitor Lee Warneke submitted that Vaini Felise could be sentenced to time served due to his lack of prior criminal record.
She said Vaini Felise had come to Australia to work in an abattoir and send money home to his family but had started drinking alcohol.
But Mr Hockey said the offences were too serious and jailed Vaini Felise for a maximum of 20 months, with a non-parole period of 14 months.
He will be eligible for release in August, when he will likely be deported.
That would have been a horrific experience for a woman with a young child.
- Magistrate Kevin Hockey said on Wednesday.
Sam Rigney
Sam began his Newcastle Herald career as a night police reporter in 2011. He is an experienced court reporter who has won two national court reporting awards, including the Kennedy Award for Outstanding Court Reporting for his coverage of the Hunter's worst serial rapist. Before working at the Herald, Sam was a sports journalist with the Maitland Mercury where he won awards for his coverage of the Newcastle Rugby League salary cap scandal. Sam is a Novocastrian born-and-bred.
Sam began his Newcastle Herald career as a night police reporter in 2011. He is an experienced court reporter who has won two national court reporting awards, including the Kennedy Award for Outstanding Court Reporting for his coverage of the Hunter's worst serial rapist. Before working at the Herald, Sam was a sports journalist with the Maitland Mercury where he won awards for his coverage of the Newcastle Rugby League salary cap scandal. Sam is a Novocastrian born-and-bred.
