Man expected to face court after alleged sexual assault of aged care resident
A 29-year-old man is expected to face court today after allegedly sexually assaulting an aged care resident on the New South Wales mid north coast. Police say he broke into the 76-year-old woman's room through a courtyard in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
Transcript
00:00 Police spoke a little earlier this morning about this incident and they say they've charged
00:07 a 29-year-old man with aggravated sexual assault with intent.
00:12 That relates to an event in the early hours of the morning on New Year's Day in which
00:17 they'll allege this man broke into an aged care home in Coffs Harbour on the New South
00:22 Wales mid-north coast.
00:24 They say he jumped a fence and allegedly broke into this 76-year-old woman's room through
00:31 an unlocked sliding door.
00:34 Police have said this morning that he was wearing a stocking over his head when he did
00:40 that and they'll allege that he then sexually assaulted that aged care resident until she
00:47 was able to fight him off and break free from the situation and go and raise the alarm with
00:52 staff, at which point the man then fled that aged care home through the courtyard and was
01:00 seen by another resident before jumping the fence again.
01:05 Police say that this man wasn't known to that aged care resident or to the nursing home
01:10 itself but police say that this was a particularly confronting event.
01:14 Here's what they said.
01:16 It's horrendous.
01:17 An attack on a person in the safety of their home in their own bed is horrendous anyway
01:22 but to break into a nursing home you are only going to find vulnerable people living there
01:26 so it beggars belief that someone would do this.
01:30 Well police have said that they were able to match this man fairly confidently to DNA
01:34 samples taken at the scene, particularly around the fence that they'll allege that he jumped
01:38 over.
01:40 So they said they were able to locate him within a few days and he was arrested yesterday.
01:47 Police have also commended the alleged victim in this incident saying that she was very
01:54 helpful in terms of identifying and recounting to police and working with them so that they're
01:58 able to do their job.
02:00 But police arrested that 29-year-old man in the street in Coffs Harbour yesterday.
02:05 They released some vision of that arrest and you can see in that vision that he was located
02:11 not wearing a shirt on the street and they sort of arrested him there.
02:16 Police spoke about, they said that he was known to police and did have a history and
02:24 he's been expected to be facing court on the Mid North Coast today.
02:28 [BLANK_AUDIO]