Ex-head chef of award-winning restaurant sentenced for sexually assaulting teenager

Law and justice concept - Themis statue, judge hammer and books. Courtroom.

The former head chef of an award-winning Melbourne restaurant has been placed on a registered sex offenders list after assaulting a teenager in the venue’s bathroom.

Thirty-four-year-old Graeme Walter quit his head chef role at Two Buoys Tapas and Wine bar in Dromana after he engaged in “sexual activity” with a 16-year-old at the Mornington Peninsula restaurant in 2019.

County Court Judge Kevin Doyle said the “victim was feeling completely drunk” and that she “should have been safe”, according to ABC News.

“When the two of you were alone, you tried to kiss her, but she pushed you away,” Judge Doyle said.

The court heard that Walter sexually assaulted the teenager in the bathroom as they left the restaurant where they had been drinking.

According to the judge, Walter then told the teenager he should not have done what he did because of his wife and family, before driving the girl home.

Judge Doyle said the girl no longer felt safe travelling around the community and her mother told the court that her daughter’s sleeping patterns had been interrupted and she had been sobbing and banging her head against a wall.

The father of three, who has since separated from his wife, was sentenced to a community-based order and will be a registered sex offender for the next 15 years.

However, Judge Doyle said that if Walter had not pleaded guilty straight away, he would have faced 15 months in jail.


Featured image source: iStock/NiseriN

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