By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Dandenong repeat sex offender has been put on a supervision order after twice groping a female passenger on her commute home.
Samy Naga, 71, had been deemed unfit for trial on two counts of sexual assault due to his mental illness.
On a special hearing by judge alone, Victorian County Court judge Martine Marich found him guilty of both charges.
In her ruling on 16 August, Judge Marich said the victim was standing in an outbound Dandenong-line train during the evening peak on 6 August 2018.
Naga got on the train at a later station, standing directly in front of her “extremely close” as she spoke to a friend on her phone.
She “froze” in shock as he touched her and pressed himself against her for several minutes.
“I’ve got to go, I’ve just been sexually assaulted on the train,” she told her friend by phone.
When she confronted Naga, he retreated and she took photos of him.
Naga had been previously twice convicted for similar indecent assaults involving touching three female commuters on a train and tram in 2013 and 2014, Judge Marich noted.
He was assessed as a moderate to high risk of reoffending.
“I am concerned about the risk of future offending if suitable supports are not provided to him,” Judge Marich said.
Judge Marich noted the Egyptian-born former soldier had his hands “dismembered” in an explosion.
On arrival in Australia, he’d worked as a forklift and taxi driver until police took away his driver’s licence.
He had a “complex” and “severe” psychiatric history and intellectual disability. This hindered him from making “careful decisions” on his behaviour.
“(It may) perhaps leave him vulnerable to the impulses that he acted upon in this case and in his earlier cases,” Judge Marich said.
He’d refused to engage with voluntary treatment, and according to him, had not taken medication since 2010.
Forensicare provided a certificate to the court that there were “no appropriate treatments or services” that it could offer.
Other experts found that Forensicare supervision would be of “limited benefit” given Naga’s denials as well as his hostility towards authority.
Judge Marich praised an “extraordinary” collaborative offer of support from the state health as well as families, fairness and housing departments – “should Mr Naga consent and voluntarily accept the support”.
A face-to-face outreach plan was developed to encourage him to engage with supports such as his local mosque, family and mental health services.
It included regular check-ins and phone contact.
“I am satisfied, given the extraordinary engagement of the various departments … that there are adequate resources available for Mr Naga’s treatment and support in the community.”
Naga was placed on an indefinite non-custodial supervision order, including treatment and rehabilitation.
Judge Marich didn’t issue a sex offender registration order on top of the supervision order due to Naga’s age and “considerable cognitive deficits”.
“It is unclear how adding onerous reporting conditions would provide any additional security to the community in the circumstances of the case.”
