A former Cricket Australia executive wants to be spared jail time after he was found guilty of sexually touching two younger male staffers.
Timothy Joseph Whittaker, 37, touched one of the men without his consent after an end-of-season function on March 16, 2019.
Whittaker and a group of staffers had gone to his Abbotsford apartment after hours of drinking and the victim was asleep on the couch when others left about 5am.
But the man woke up in Whittaker’s bed with his pants off and the 37-year-old touching him without his consent.
Magistrate Tim Gattuso also found Whittaker guilty of sexually touching another younger man on January 8, 2016.
In a victim impact statement, the man said he had viewed Whittaker as a friend after the 37-year-old helped him get a job at Cricket Australia.
But that trust was broken, and he felt angry and embarrassed, the statement continued.
During Monday’s plea hearing in Melbourne Magistrates Court, Whittaker’s barrister Dermot Dann KC denied Whittaker breached the men’s trust through his offending.
Mr Dann said his client should be spared jail time because he had severe anxiety and depression, as well as other health issues like sleep apnoea and hypertension.
The barrister also cited the long delays in the case, noting the first police complaint came on March 23, 2019, and yet Whittaker wasn’t interviewed by detectives until December 25, 2020.
Prosecutor Sharn-Adelle Coombes said delays could be attributed in part to the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact Whittaker was living interstate for half of 2020.
She also maintained the 37-year-old breached the trust of the two victims.
“Whittaker was a mentor of these two young men and he exploited them,” Ms Coombes said.
The prosecutor urged the magistrate to sentence Whittaker to jail time, saying a strong message needed to be sent to the community.
Mr Gattuso ordered Whittaker to undertake a community corrections order assessment but warned it didn’t mean jail time was out of the question.
Whittaker will be sentenced on Friday.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028