Frank Zumbo, the former chief of staff to federal MP Craig Kelly, has avoided jail on a string of aggravated indecent assault convictions, despite a magistrate finding he had not displayed “any remorse or contrition” for his “pattern of ongoing criminal conduct”.
Francesco Zumbo, 56, was sentenced to a two-year intensive corrections order by magistrate Gareth Christofi in Sydney’s Downing Centre court on Friday. The order is a custodial sentence but served in the community.
Zumbo was convicted of seven charges of aggravated indecent assault of a victim under authority of the offender, and one charge of assault with an act of indecency – over a series of offences committed against four women who worked in Kelly’s Sutherland shire electorate office between 2014 and 2020.
Zumbo was convicted over incidents that included grabbing the women on the breasts, bottom and vulva, demanding they kiss and hug him, and berating them if they refused.
In one incident that took place late at night in a park in the Sydney suburb of Willoughby, Zumbo pulled a young staffer close to him and kissed her against her will. When she looked down, the woman saw his pants unzipped and his penis exposed.
Zumbo ran Kelly’s electorate office in his former seat of Hughes and promoted himself as a political svengali and well-connected political operative within the Liberal party.
On Friday, he sat alone in court, as the magistrate said his offending was a gross abuse of power, that he was not just the victims’ employer but a mentor, and that he held out to them the promise of a political career.
“It is the cynical abuse of this position of power that makes these offences so serious: he deliberately manipulated these young women, he took advantage of their vulnerability, and he did so for his own sexual gratification,” Christofi said.
The magistrate said there were four separate victims, and Zumbo’s calculated offending took place over years.
“This was not an isolated lapse of judgment, it was a pattern of ongoing criminal conduct.”
Christofi said Zumbo continued to deny the offences and said he believed the victims were “out to get him” for political reasons.
“Such a belief is delusional,” the magistrate said. “He [Zumbo] has not acknowledged any wrongdoing and not expressed any remorse or contrition.”
The court heard the “damage inflicted upon the victims” by Zumbo’s predatory behaviour was “deep and enduring”.
In a victim impact statement, one woman told the court Zumbo had “methodically dismantled my sense of identity and security … [and] left permanent scars which I must deal with daily”.
She said her mental health “collapsed” in the wake of his offending and her relationships suffered ongoing harm. Describing herself as a “once-vibrant individual”, she said she “now feels like a mere shadow of my former self”.
Another said she “no longer remembers what it feels like to feel completely safe and happy”.
During his trial, Sydney-born Zumbo told the court he regularly hugged and kissed female staff because of his Italian heritage, saying it was his usual way to greet people and that he wanted to make his office a “family environment”. Crown prosecutors submitted that reasoning was further example of his lack of insight into his offending and the harm it caused.
Zumbo’s defence counsel, Michael Moussa, urged the court to consider that Zumbo had suffered “extra-curial” punishment, citing the fact that the former university lecturer and political staffer had not worked since the allegations first became public and he was “unlikely to ever work again”.
The magistrate acknowledged that widespread reporting of his trial had damaged Zumbo’s reputation and he had been ostracised by former colleagues and friends.
