Former Australian boxing champion Marc Bargero is fighting to avoid being sent to jail after being found guilty of drunkenly sexually assaulting a teenage girl as she slept.
Bargero contested allegations he had performed an oral sex act on the 15-year-old girl after putting her to bed, however was found guilty after facing a judge-alone trial earlier this year.
Bargero confessed to “sniffing” the girl’s crotch in an attempt to relive his first sexual experience, but had denied he had licked the girl’s vagina.
The court was told during his trial that Bargero was visiting a woman at her home on Sydney’s northern beaches when the teen arrived with a group of other youths.
When the girl passed out after drinking alcohol, Bargero took her upstairs and placed her on a bed.
The court was previously told he returned a short time later, moved the girl towards the edge of the bed, pulled her pants down, got on her knees, kissed her stomach and licked her vagina.
The girl woke up and fled downstairs, crying and saying: “I just woke up and he was just eating me out.”
In an interview with police, Bargero told officers he wanted to relive his first sexual experience, where he would get under a table and “sniff” an older woman.
“I had my head down there but I was just sniffin’ it,” Bargero told police, the court previously heard.
“I got carried away at the moment, I got a bit too drunk.”
He stated that he had not touched the girl’s vagina.
However, Judge Tim Gartelmann accepted the girl’s evidence and noted that due to his level of intoxication, Bargero could not remember all he did that night.
Bargero was found guilty of sexual intercourse without consent and intentionally sexually touching the girl.
During a sentence hearing on Friday afternoon, his barrister Stephen Russell said he had shown considerable contrition, despite pleading not guilty and fighting the allegations.
Mr Russell said Bargero had experienced significant “public shame and humiliation” through social media and the media.
The court heard that during his police interview he had asked officers if he could meet with the complainant and her family to apologize for his actions.
He had also offered to plead guilty to lesser charges, however it was rejected by the prosecution.
Mr Russell said Bargero had been “through the ringer” in life, had suffered mental illness and depression and had to be hospitalized and medicated following the death of his mother.
He submitted that Bargero could serve his sentence by way of a community corrections order or intensive corrections order, pointing to his lack of criminal history.
“He’s a man who had no history of anything like this,” Mr Russell said.
“People speak of him being respectful. The evidence given before your honor by a female witness indicated that he was very respectful towards women.
“This event must be seen as… a complete aberration. And he knows that himself.
“He was offended by his own behavior that he believed he had committed at that time, he stressed it so profoundly in both interviews.”
However, the crown prosecution submitted he should be jailed, with Judge Gartelmann to decide his fate later this month.
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