Man jailed for sexual assault of legally blind mother

Laine Clark | August 29, 2023

Sensing someone was nearby, a legally blind 79-year-old mother asked what was happening before a hand guided her into the bathroom.

There had been plumbing problems at her house so when she heard running water she had approached to investigate.

She did not know Timithy Mark O’Neill was in the bathroom.

At the time O’Neill was visiting the woman’s visually impaired son who lived with the 79-year-old at the Toowoomba residence, west of Brisbane.

While O’Neill was using the bathroom, the woman approached from her nearby bedroom to investigate the running water following the recent plumbing problems.

She sensed a man was in the bathroom and asked what was happening.

O’Neill took her by the hand and guided her into the bathroom.

He then put her hand on his penis before the woman screamed and left.

“The offending would have been frightening to the complainant. She was an elderly woman who ought to have felt comfortable in her own home,” Judge Michael Burnett said of the February 2022 incident.

“It was brazen offending and it appears somewhat opportunistic. It occurred at a house where you were a guest … you took advantage of that situation to engage in this offending.”

A short time afterwards O’Neill lied to police, telling them what had happened was a “mutual thing” and the complainant had previously exposed herself to him.

Judge Burnett noted that O’Neill’s criminal history included a number of convictions with a “sexual quality about them”.

It included a 2016 incident in which O’Neill stopped his car at 5am and asked a woman for directions before exposing himself, Brisbane District Court was told.

He then grabbed her through the window by the arm and told her she was coming with him before the woman broke free and ran away.

The now 41-year-old O’Neill had a mental health condition that had been evident since he was 19, the court heard.

His defence said there might be a “causal association” between the development of O’Neill’s mental health condition and his more than three-page criminal history.

They also indicated a connection with O’Neill committing offences while off his medication.

“That perhaps explains why there was a 10-year hiatus between one body of offending and a later body of offending,” Judge Burnett said.

O’Neill is now taking monthly medication shots.

O’Neill lives alone and had had difficulty with relationships throughout his life, the court was told.

The 41-year-old pleaded guilty to sexual assault and was sentenced to 18 months in jail on Tuesday.

He will be eligible for parole in October.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028