A former Orange bus driver was given a custodial sentence in Orange Local Court for assaulting a child during a bus run in April last year.
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The man no longer works for the bus company and cannot be identified due to a Non-Publication Order which was created to protect the identity of the female victim.
According to police, the man pinched the pre-teen girl on her buttocks after she got on the bus after school and reached past him to put something in the bin. The victim then stood up and moved away from the driver and said "don't".
Further into the drive the child got up and sat on the steps next to the driver to talk to him about a family member who had recently died. However, while they were talking the man reached out with his left hand and touched the victim on her inner thigh. The girl pulled her legs together and the driver withdrew his hand.
Three days later, the child told her mother who reported the assault to police.
The driver was on bail when he appeared in court earlier this month and pleaded guilty to a charge of common assault that had been made that day. The man was initially to take part in a hearing for another charge, however the Director of Public Prosecutions withdrew that original charge and replaced it with common assault.
Solicitor Mason Manwaring said the man did not intend to touch the girl inappropriately but to comfort her.
"It could be dealt with without a conviction," Mr Manwaring said.
"It's an assault because of who he was and what he was doing and shouldn't be doing.
"The pinching your Honour stands differently to the other matter where the young person was at the front of the bus and was talking about her [family member].
"The touch was on her thigh near her knee. It was a touch for comfort."
However, magistrate Elizabeth Ellis disagreed about the severity of the assault.
"It was of such comfort that she believed she needed to close her legs," Ms Ellis said.
"I'm challenging you in the submission that it was almost a nothing."
Mr Manwaring continued to submit that the offence did not cross the custodial threshold. However, Ms Ellis said it did cross the threshold and there was a "like charge" on the man's record from 1995, although the 2019 common assault was his only other charge since then.
"She told her mother, 'he pinches me on the bottom, I tell him to stop but he doesn't seem to listen'," Ms Ellis said.
"He was a temporary carer of a very young child."
Ms Ellis gave the man a nine-month custodial sentence by way of an intensive correction order that will be served in the community. An apprehended violence order is also in place until the child turns 18.
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