An Irish backpacker has avoided a jail sentence for sexually assaulting another traveller in a Brisbane hostel.
Brisbane District Court heard Leonard Joseph Morgan, 28, kissed and fondled a Welsh backpacker’s breasts and genitals as she slept in a common area of the Prince Consort Backpackers Hotel, on May 5 2007.
Morgan pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual assault and was sentenced to nine months’ jail to be suspended immediately. He will be leaving Australia imminently.
Defence barrister Craig Eberhardt said his client had intended to wake the woman, with whom he had previously shared a kiss.
Crown prosecutor Philip McCarthy said Morgan, who was in Australia on a working holiday visa, said the woman was asleep and Morgan could not have believed she was awake to consent to the behaviour.
Mr McCarthy said Morgan had committed several other offences in his short time in the country and immigration authorities had taken steps to deport him back to Ireland.
Read the full story in the Brisbane Times
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