A REFUGEE on a bridging visa has denied indecently assaulting a female university student but admits entering a locked campus unit and going into the bedroom where she slept, a trial heard yesterday.
A jury at Downing Centre District Court was told Sri Lankan asylum seeker Daxchan Selvarajah’s fingerprints were found on the back window, upstairs wall and on a bedroom door of a unit where a university student was woken to feel a “cold hand” on her inner thigh and rubbing her genitals.
Defence barrister Alissa Moen said the 24-year-old man admitted to entering the unit, trying the handle of one locked bedroom before entering the alleged victim’s room but did not indecently assault the woman.
“He did indeed enter (the bedroom) but what occurred once he is in there and what he did is very much in dispute,” she said.
Mr Selvarajah has pleaded not guilty to aggravated break and enter with indecent assault and attempted break and enter with intent to commit indecent assault at Macquarie University about 3.30am on February 21, 2013.
Crown trial advocate Peter Thompson told the jury the student, who cannot be named to protect her identity, was asleep in her room when she felt “a cold hand on her inner thigh”.
“She challenged the person, she yelled, she screamed and the person ran away.”
Mr Thompson told the jury a flatmate, who was awake at the time, would give evidence that the alleged victim shouted: “Who the hell are you? Get the f--- out of my house” before allegedly chasing him out.
Mr Thompson said Mr Selvarajah was living in temporary accommodation on the campus nearby when the alleged indecent assault occurred.
He said Mr Selvarajah tore open the flyscreen of the loungeroom window and then reached in to open the door from the inside. After he fled, the victim called security who searched the campus but police were not called until the following morning.
Mr Thompson said although Mr Selvarajah's fingerprints were found inside and outside the unit, his DNA was not on her pyjama pants. The student will give evidence this morning.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/refugee-daxchan-selvarajah-denies-sexu...