A “brazen” serial sex offender has been jailed for conning a retail worker into rubbing oil on his penis on the pretence of treating his fake medical condition.
Stephen John Jones appeared in court on Wednesday to face his fate after he pleaded guilty to three counts of inciting another to do sexual act without consent, carrying out sexual act with another without consent, and intentionally recording intimate image without consent.
The court heard the 69-year-old targeted three women at their workplaces in Sydney before sexually assaulting them.
The court documents reveal the harrowing details of one of the foul attacks, which occurred in Sydney’s west last year.
On November 26, Jones hobbled into a store in western Sydney with crutches after claiming a workplace accident left him struggling to walk.
He told a store employee he had a partially severed penis and little feeling in his genitals as a result of the accident.
Jones presented the woman with a fraudulent doctor’s certificate which claimed he suffered from painful spontaneous erections.
She helped him try on some shorts before he began complaining that his penis hurt.
He asked the woman to rub some grapeseed oil on his groin to ease the pain, which was the treatment recommended in the fake doctors note.
The facts state the woman initially refused but then reluctantly agreed to massage the oil into his inner thighs and pelvis to relieve the elderly man’s discomfort.
Unsatisfied with the intimacy, Jones then asked the retail worker to rub the oil into his penis and testicles.
The court documents state the woman was “incredibly uncomfortable” but agreed to help ease his pain, believing Jones’ lie that he had little feeling in his genitals.
After around 20 minutes, the young store employee stopped touching Jones and noticed he had been filming her with his phone.
She told him she was calling the police and he snatched his clothes and ran out of the store without any help from his crutches.
The 69-year-old was arrested on December 2 and police later discovered a bottle of Viagra pills, a fake doctors note and a bottle of grapeseed oil in his car.
Court documents reveal he is a serial sex pest with more than a dozen convictions for sexual offences in two states.
Police labelled Jones an “extreme risk to the community”.
“The accused is a brazen, recidivist sex offender whose offending has become more frequent and serious in nature,” police state in the court documents.
Jones, who declined legal representation in order to represent himself, told the court his last sexual offence took place 20 years ago.
He blamed the offences on “psychological muscle memory” and said he “never stopped to think about it” or the effect it would have on his victims.
“I don’t have sexual urges,” the 69-year-old claimed in court.
He told the court he recognised that he had likely traumatised the women through his actions.
“I am genuinely sorry that I put the victims through that,” he said, and denied saying so because he was in jail.
The police prosecutor argued Jones displayed a complete lack of insight into his offending.
He declared the sexual attacks were “planned and targeted”.
“(During the western Sydney attack) he canvassed and scoped out the store for that offence before leaving and returning with some crutches to go along with his story,” he said.
“The harm done to the victims is substantial.”
The court heard the 69-year-old was on bail at the time of three of the offences.
Magistrate Alison Viney agreed the offences were premeditated and said Jones knew what he was doing.
“You know what you did was wrong but that you found yourself effectively unable to stop yourself, that it was a compulsion to some degree,” she told the sex pest.
The magistrate slammed Jones for attacking the women in their workplaces, where they would expect to be safe and respected.
“Often they were environments where there was only the singular female available, and in that way they were targeted,” she said.
“Each of the complainants talks about being violated and upset and feeling sick … I can understand their disgust.”
Magistrate Viney sentenced Jones to 14-months in jail, with a non-parole period of eight months.
With time served, he will be eligible for release on August 1, 2023.
