Shop groper put behind bars
A DEVIANT sex offender attacked five women in broad daylight as they did their Christmas shopping in Ipswich.
Over a three-hour period, Timothy Llewellyn Keith Warren stalked the women, who were shopping alone at Redbank Plaza, and groped them on their buttocks and breasts.
Ipswich District Court heard as the women turned around to face their attacker, Warren, 28, would grin and say "sorry".
He followed one of his victims out to the car park, after assaulting her in the toy section of a department store, then attacked her as she loaded her groceries into the car, which had her three children in it.
During four other attacks, between 12.30pm and 3.30pm on December 16 last year, Warren approached the women, usually in the toy sections of Kmart and Target, and groped them. He would also fondle himself in front of them before the women fled.
Warren has a lengthy history for indecent acts in public places, and was only released from prison 10 days before the series of sex assaults at Redbank.
Judge Greg Koppenol said Warren was a "sexual pervert and predator".
"You deliberately and brazenly chose women who were unaccompanied by men - the community needs to be protected from people like you," Judge Koppenol said.
"Women should be entitled to shop without being groped - this behaviour must be condemned."
Warren pleaded guilty to six counts of sexual assault and was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. He will be eligible to apply for parole on February 15.
Three of the victims submitted statements to the court saying they had felt "dirty, violated, distressed, sick and uncomfortable".
Warren's defence said he had not been diagnosed with any form of mental illness.
