A man who indecently assaulted five women as they walked home from a university campus in a series of attacks in Sydney's eastern suburbs has been sentenced to three years in prison.
Jean Francois Barbarin, a French man in his late forties living in Australia, was sentenced on Friday and given a non parole period of 18 months.
District Court judge Robyn Tupman said Barbarin had targeted young women of Asian appearance in the attacks, which took place between April 2016 and February 2017.
In the first assault in April 2016, a woman was walking from the University of New South Wales campus to her car, when Barbarin grabbed her from behind and attempted to put his hand over her mouth, the court heard.
The woman initially thought it was a friend, but when she turned to see Barbarin, she "began to scream and tried to twist herself out of his grip", Tupman said.
He then pulled up her skirt before fleeing. A tape lift on the skirt elicited DNA that matched to Barbarin, Tupman said.
In another attack in February 2017, Barbarin approached a young woman and asked if he could help with her bags, saying they looked heavy. She declined and walked away, and he then approached her again as she was getting out her keys outside an apartment block.
"Can I have sex with you?" Barbarin asked, before grabbing her breast and fleeing when she brushed away his hand.
Three other attacks also involved Barbarin grabbing the breasts of young women, and DNA matched him to the crime scene, the court heard.
Tupman said the women were generally returning home from university or the grocery store and in some instances fumbling with keys outside their homes when they were confronted by Barbarin.
"In each case they were doing nothing more than going about their ordinary lives," Tupman said.
She said "no doubt each of the victims was very frightened" and were likely to suffer "increased fear and vigilance" and a lack of confidence in their daily lives in the wake of such an attack.
The first woman, who was grabbed from behind, gave a witness impact statement in which she reported symptoms of depression and PTSD, the court heard.
In handing down the three-year sentence, Tupman said Barbarin's crimes fell in the lower range of seriousness for sexual assault offences.
He was remorseful for his actions, but could not account for them, Tupman said.
"He cannot even today explain why it is he acted in the way he did," she said.
Tupman also noted that Barbarin had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which she said was not a cause of his offending, but was related.
It was a "somewhat curious disconnect" that Barbarin had reported being in a depressed phase at the time of the attacks, but his psychiatrist said such attacks were more typical to occur in a manic phase of bipolar disorder, Tupman said.
Barbarin received a 25% discount on his sentence for an early guilty plea.
Tupman noted that he will likely be deported to France when he is released from prison, which will make it difficult for him to see his teenage daughter, who lives in Australia. Barbarin has been married twice, but both relationships broke up. He has been in Australia since 1977 and worked primarily in restaurants.
The sentencing was originally scheduled for October 5, but it was postponed after Tupman was handed a list of seven sentences to deliver in one day, prompting her to blast the "extraordinary workload" given to District Court judges.
In strident and widely reported comments, Tupman described the workload as "ridiculous, absurd and offensive to the people of NSW" and warned judges may be driven to suicide over the pressure of their jobs if things do not change.
She said the result in Barbarin's case "will no doubt be pored over" and "almost certainly everybody will be unhappy with the outcome", according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
"It’s little wonder that some judicial officers in Australia with a less robust temperament than I have aren’t able to cope with that, and it’s something that needs to be looked at," she said.
Tupman was the subject of heated scrutiny after she found Luke Lazarus, the son of a Kings Cross nightclub owner, not guilty of raping a woman in the lane behind his father's club.
The case was subsequently featured on Four Corners and sparked an inquiry into New South Wales consent laws.
On Friday, before sentencing Barbarin, Tupman said: "We don't have a cast of thousands here like last time."
Barbarin has been in custody since his arrest in November 2017. He will be eligible for parole in May 2019.