Man who kissed depressed wife's bottom avoids jail

An Australian man who drunkenly kissed his estranged wife on the bottom has avoided a prison term. The unemployed 48-year-old ex-social worker, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to indecent assault. He was sentenced in the Hobart Magistrates Court yesterday. The man had been drinking when he went to his wife's Hobart home last June to talk with her.

She was lying on a bed and he twice asked her to turn over on to her stomach. When she refused he forcibly rolled her over, straddled her, pulled down her pants and kissed her on the bottom as she screamed "No, no!". Hearing the commotion, their children ran in and the victim explained she had been tickled but her husband made a vulgar comment. When interviewed by police about the incident, the man admitted the attack and apologised to the victim.



He said he intended the kiss as an act of foreplay to lift the spirits of his depressed wife but admitted he went too far. The court was told the man had previously struggled with alcohol abuse, binge-drinking two to three times a week, but was a regular churchgoer. Magistrate Olivia McTaggart said she was satisfied a jail term was appropriate but that it should be suspended.

"It was a brief yet forceful and humiliating act for your wife," she said. "It was not expected and her embarrassment was heightened by the presence of your children in the house." The couple, who were married for 21 years, had separated since the incident, the court heard. Ms McTaggart sentenced the man to four months' jail but suspended it for three years on condition he commit no further sexual assaults. She also imposed an 18-month probation order.