Travis Bamblett, 30, jailed for sexually assaulting young woman

Travis Bamblett was charged in Dubbo Local Court on Thursday, July 27 with sexually touching another person without consent and entering a building with intent to commit an indictable offence.

According to court documents at 6am on July 24, 2022, the victim was asleep in her bedroom when she was woken by knocking on her bedroom window. Thinking it was her cousin, she opened her window and saw Bamblett.

Bamblett said to the victim "hey bub, just wondering if you have a spare $10 so I can get fuel", the victim said she didn't. Bamblett then asked for "some smokes" but the victim told him she didn't smoke. Bamblett then proceeded to ask if she had a boyfriend, and the victim said she did.

According to court documents, Bamblett asked if he could come inside five times and the victim continually denied him while attempting to close her bedroom window. But, Bamblett put his hand in the way and pushed it back open.

He tried asking to come inside again but the victim told him her parents were home. Bamblett replied saying, "it's okay, I'll be quiet. I can treat you good. I'll give you a good time".

The victim denied him again.

Bamblett then reached through the window and palmed at the victim's vagina on the outside of her clothes, the contact lasting for a second before the woman jumped back out of shock.

According to the court documents, Bamblett then climbed into the victim's bedroom. As he approached the victim she punched him in the nose.

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Bamblett pushed the victim onto her bed and tried taking her clothes off. The victim tried pushing Bamblett off her with no luck as the attack continued.

The victim was able to shimmy out from under Bamblett and kick him in the face. He stumbled back and she punched him three times before running to her parents' room.

Court documents state Bamblett was heard saying, "I guess I'll go then".

When police went door knocking in relation to an unrelated manner later that day, they were informed about Bamblett coming into the victim's bedroom.

On July 25, 2022 DNA was collected from the victim's bedroom which matched Bamblett's DNA profile.

He was arrested on September 5, 2022.

Crown Prosecutor Jarni Simpson said the two minutes in which the offending occurred inside the victim's house, was a "significant" period of time for a young woman to fend off a 30-year-old.

"The community will have an expectation that a sentence is needed to hold him accountable, especially when he's expressed no remorse what-so-ever," she said.

"He's had multiple opportunities to engage in drug and alcohol rehabilitation via community correction orders, and he's not availed himself for that or had a desire to go."

Magistrate Aaron Tang told Bamblett, who appeared via audio-visual link, that he acknowledged Bamblett didn't have a good upbringing but that wasn't an excuse for his behaviour.

"Quite a lot of people who suffer from abuse make the decision to not let it rule their life, to not say the power was taken away, they take power of their own life and work to address those issues," he said.

"You have a daughter and you want to do the best for her so you need to not only think about your life but her, so she doesn't have the same life you've had. You don't want to see her sitting in a cell one day.

"How would you feel if someone did something to her in the way you did to your victim?"

Bamblett said that he would "kill him".

"I'm sorry and I wish I could change what happened, I need to wake up to myself and do something in my life, I can't keep blaming the drugs," he said.

Magistrate Tang said everyone was entitled to feel safe in their own home and shouldn't be woken up by a significantly older stranger.

"She had her security at home breached, and her personal integrity breached, despite struggling," he said.

"Only now you've expressed remorse and it's difficult to tell if it's genuine remorse."

Bamblett was sentenced to 30 months in prison, backdated to February 20, 2023.

He will be eligible for release on August 19, 2024.

Support is available for those who may be distressed.