AN INTRUDER who entered a North Tamworth home and sexually assaulted a woman while she slept has been jailed for a maximum of four years.
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The now 32-year-old cannot be named for legal reasons but will have to serve at least two years in custody after he was jailed in a Sydney court this week for the 2016 attack.
In sentencing in the Downing Centre District Court, Judge David Arnott convicted the Korean national of five offences relating to the North Tamworth attack, following a trial last year.
He imposed various sentences, spanning from 12 months to the head sentence of four years.
The trial heard from several witnesses, including the victim, as well as a man who was also inside the Carthage St unit at the time of the attack about 2.30am on April 10, 2016.
The victim did not know the Korean national at the time of the attack.
After a 10-day trial, the Sydney jury found the man guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent, two counts of attempted sexual intercourse without consent and one charge of assault with an act of indecency.
It took the jury less than a day to find him guilty of five charges. Judge Arnott immediately revoked his bail, and ordered him into custody last November.
The man was cleared of charges of aggravated sexual assault by breaking and entering with intent, and found guilty of the back-up charges.
It was the Crown’s case that he entered the unit, and went to the bedroom where he sexually assaulted the woman who was asleep in the bed.
Much of the detail surrounding the case is suppressed for legal reasons, but Tamworth police were alerted shortly after the incident.
A crime scene was set-up at the unit and forensic samples taken from the location.
Several suspects were identified and questioned during the investigation – led by Oxley detectives – before a DNA breakthrough led investigators to the man.
He was tracked to Sydney and arrested by Oxley detectives on May 5, 2016.
He was charged at a Sydney police station and granted police bail on the same day.
The Crown maintained the man was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the attack, but he did not give evidence during the trial.
After time served, the man will be first eligible for parole in November, 2020.