![Liam Jones leaves court on a previous occasion. Picture by Tim Piccione Liam Jones leaves court on a previous occasion. Picture by Tim Piccione](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/171518670/9b100ef6-435e-415e-97e1-07da85fed96e.JPG/r0_24_1354_785_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Dealing more rapidly with a man's indecent assault of a friend could have prevented his rape of another two months later, a magistrate has said.
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"I am reasonably confident the latter offending would not have occurred," Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker said on Thursday.
Liam Jones, 28, was on Thursday sentenced in the ACT Magistrates Court after previously admitting to committing an act of indecency on a friend in April 2021 at the woman's home.
The pair met while working together at Dendy Cinemas in Civic.
Jones was handed a three-year good behaviour order, escaping having further jail time added to the three-and-a-half-year term he is serving for the rape of another work colleague.
He denied that separate charge but was found guilty by a jury in February.
Jones also knew that victim through the cinema and the offending similarly took place in the woman's bed.
His most recent sentencing allows The Canberra Times to identify him, with a non-publication order on his name and former place of work lifted.
![Liam Jones, who admitted to the indecent assault. Picture by Tim Piccione Liam Jones, who admitted to the indecent assault. Picture by Tim Piccione](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/171518670/63dde3f5-c7e8-4f0e-a11c-c75b7133d236.JPG/r829_334_3993_2183_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The victims in both cases have given their express permission to be identified in media reporting.
"You can come over but we are not having sex," the woman in the indecent assault case told Jones after the pair met up in Civic on a night out.
They went to bed "cuddling" but, after saying goodnight and attempting to fall asleep, the offender touched the woman's genitals inside her underwear for about 10 to 20 seconds.
"You can't handle being here," the victim told Jones before ordering him an Uber to go home.
"I know," Jones responded.
Earlier this month, the victim told the court: "Being violated physically and taken advantage of at my most vulnerable was mortifying."
Ms Walker acknowledged the "devastating impact" the incident had on the woman's mental health.
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Ms Walker said the victim had set ground rules about the pair's interactions at her home and, once Jones had breached those rules, she asked him to leave, a request with which he "complied immediately".
This, Ms Walker said, depicted a woman "very much in control of the situation".
The Chief Magistrate also said she accepted Jones' remorse as genuine.
Chief Justice Lucy McCallum previously described Jones as "cynical and self-serving" during his rape case and questioned the man's remorse.
"I don't see how an offender can be accepted to have the smallest scintilla of remorse if he continues to deny the acts he is found by the jury to have committed," Chief Justice McCallum said in April.
On Thursday, Ms Walker said Jones had "excellent prospects for rehabilitation" and noted the indecent assault was effectively his first offence.
She did not consider financial penalties appropriate and said the man could not be ordered to complete community service while in custody.
Jones' good behaviour order will run concurrently with his earlier sentence, which makes him eligible for parole in August 2024.
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