Julia Gillard’s former partner Tim Mathieson has avoided a jail sentence despite sexually assaulting a sleeping woman in her apartment. The court was told Mathieson initially laughed and denied doing anything wrong but now admits his guilt.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 Leaving court in disgrace.
00:04 Once dubbed Australia's first bloke, Tim Matheson is now a convicted sex offender.
00:09 Do you have anything to say to that woman?
00:11 Tim, you've already spoken.
00:12 What did you do?
00:13 Today a magistrate spared him jail time for sexually assaulting a sleeping woman last
00:19 year.
00:20 The 66-year-old ducked into a pub to avoid the cameras.
00:24 The Melbourne Magistrate's Court was told Matheson and the woman had lunch at her Brunswick
00:28 apartment.
00:29 She fell asleep and woke to find Matheson sucking her nipple and grabbing her breast.
00:34 He laughed when she told him to stop before he was kicked out of the apartment.
00:39 "Sorry, that won't happen again," Matheson told the victim, but later told police he
00:44 did nothing wrong.
00:45 Matheson now admits he assaulted the woman.
00:48 The court was told the pair struck up a friendship during lockdown and she felt betrayed by what
00:53 he'd done.
00:54 "I was in a state of confusion, anger and felt completely disrespected," she said.
01:01 Matheson was previously in the national spotlight as the partner of former PM Julia Gillard.
01:06 The pair's relationship ended about two years before Matheson assaulted the other woman.
01:12 Magistrate Belinda Franyik told Matheson his offending was a serious example of sexual
01:16 assault, but said his history of charitable work and clean criminal record were important
01:22 factors in lowering his sentence.
01:25 It's well understood that taking advantage of a sleeping victim is an aggravating and
01:29 highly culpable act.
01:31 The magistrate recorded a conviction and fined Matheson $7,000, but the blow to his reputation
01:37 is one he's unlikely to recover from.
01:40 [BLANK_AUDIO]