An eight year prison sentence has been handed out to the Ashburton rugby club captain found guilty last month of sexually assaulting a player in his bed. In a jury trial Ronald Forsyth, 50, who had been the club captain and a team manager of Ashburton's Allenton Rugby Club, had been found guilty of on two counts of indecent assault, and one of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection. The jury had heard that Forsyth went to the complainant's home on June 28 to return a wallet. The complainant was already in bed drunk after the pair had been socialising earlier in the evening. Forsyth is said to have gone into the bedroom and been there for between half and one and a half hours before the complainant woke up, felt Forsyth touching him and ran from the room. Forsyth denied the assault took place. In a victim impact report it was stated that the complainaint had since suffered from anxiety attacks, humiliation, was having to undergo intensive counseling, had frequently been unable to work and felt he needed to move away from Ashburton. Sentencing Judge Colin Doherty said that the assault was horrendous but not out of the ordinary and that the sexual violation was momentary. He sentenced Forsyth to eight years imprisonment on the count of sexual violation and 18 months on each of the indecent assaults. The terms will be served concurrently.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 8th August 2009 - 11:57am