A former South Coast man who pleaded guilty to breaking into a Sanctuary Point home and touching a sleeping eight-year-old girl has been committed for sentence to the district court.
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The now 24-year-old, who can't be named for legal reasons, appeared in Nowra Local Court on Tuesday, June 18, pleading guilty to aggravated break and enter committing a serious indictable offence.
Court papers said the then 22-year-old broke into a home at Sanctuary Point around 2.15am on March 18, 2016.
The court heard he broke through the flyscreen door before opening the closed but unlocked front door and found the girl asleep on a mattress in the lounge room, next to her mother who was on the lounge.
The girl's father and sister were both asleep in other parts of the house.
Court papers said the girl was only sleeping in underpants, and the intruder touched the girl in the vicinity of her underwear.
The woman woke to see a man wearing dark pants and jacket with a hood and wearing a cap backwards standing at the end of the mattress.
The mother yelled for help and armed herself with a knife from the kitchen as the man fled.
Police were called to the home and started investigations.
The girl underwent a number of forensic procedures, which police produced as evidence during the hearing.
Following investigations, the man was charged on July 25, 2016 while in custody at the Wellington Correctional Centre.
A charge of sexual intercourse with a child under 10 was withdrawn and dismissed.
Magistrate Gabriel Fleming referred the charge to the Nowra District Court in August for sentence.
Read more: Crime/Court