"Take your time, take a breath," magistrate Glenn Theakston told a young woman as she clutched and stared at her stack of papers.
He assured the victim of two indecent assaults it was normal to feel overwhelmed in the witness box, but that it would pass.
Sitting only a few metres from her perpetrator, a man she didn't know outside an afternoon spent in his Tuggeranong shop, she let out a few tears before commencing.
"The world now feels like a sad place," the woman read from her victim impact statement, as supporters in the public gallery also cried.
"My trust in people has been significantly impacted, especially towards men."
The ACT Magistrates Court heard the woman's concern that tailor Mohammad Younes Sarvari believed his offending behaviour was normal. She questioned whether it had happened to other women.
"His actions felt rehearsed and practised," she said.
The victim explained how the non-consensual conduct, as well as accompanying inappropriate comments, took her by complete surprise while she was vulnerable and, in one case, "almost nude".
"I reported to police to stop him from doing this to someone else," the woman told the court.
"He chose the wrong person to do this to and I hope anyone else has the strength to come forward."
The indecent assaults
Sarvari, the 47-year-old owner of Alterations Now, was found guilty earlier this year of two counts of committing an act of indecency following a hearing.
The two charges relate to the man's actions in his shop in November 2022, when he twice tightly and intimately hugged the woman without her consent and with elements of being for sexual gratification.
The court found on both occasions the tailor placed his face into the victim's neck, nuzzled and deeply inhaled.
The woman was topless and wearing only a pair of underwear during the second offending hug. She felt the man's lips on her neck and he grabbed her "love handles".
"Your body is so sweet I might become a mosquito," he had told her.
"I love your body."
He received a fully suspended three-month sentence and 18-month, partly supervised, good behaviour order as a result.
The victim had visited the business to have a dress altered for an upcoming wedding.
The magistrate said the woman, who was a "generation younger", had been asked to expose herself for the tailoring process and therefore placed a great deal of trust in the stranger.
"There is a clear expectation and standing in the community, at this time and in this place, perhaps in contrast to other times and other places, there be no intimate physical connection without genuine consent by the recipient," the magistrate said.
But Mr Theakston also found Sarvari, who has no criminal history, had not acted with malice, threat or force.
"It was a step too far and motivated by misguided affection," he said.
"I need to send a message to others considering this kind of behaviour there are consequences."
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Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; MensLine 1300 789 978; beyondblue 1300 224 636.
