A man who held a knife to a woman’s throat and asked her for sex while she was working had a “predatory, violent and alarming” history of targeting and attacking vulnerable women, according to a judge.

Jack Passlow, 28, of Mooroopna had pleaded guilty in Shepparton County Court to assault with the intention to commit sexual assault and sexual assault.

He has been sentenced to five years in prison and will have to serve two years and eight months before becoming eligible for parole.

The 576 days he has spent in prison will count as time already served.

The court heard the assaults happened when the woman went to do some work at Passlow’s Mooroopna home on March 7, 2023.

Passlow pressed himself against the woman when she bent down to pick something up, before he held a box cutter knife to her throat.

He then gave the victim a hug, asked her for sex, and she suggested they go and do it in the car as a way she could escape.

Passlow then kissed the woman and touched her inappropriately while trying to pick her up to take her to his bedroom.

Trying to de-escalate the situation, the woman told Passlow another person was coming to the house to check on them, and he would have to act normal and hide the knife.

The woman told Passlow she would have to answer the front door before she ran out into the street and called the police.

Passlow called the police himself and admitted to being “sexually frustrated” and trying to sexually assault the victim and holding her at knifepoint.

In sentencing Passlow, Judge John Kelly said the assaults were “extremely terrifying” to the victim, who used “inventiveness in handling you” and escaping.

Judge Kelly acknowledged Passlow had experienced “abuse, displacement, neglect and bullying all your life” and he had been a “vulnerable child who was denied a safe and nurturing home environment”.

Passlow had been diagnosed with a mild intellectual disability, and his judgment and “ability to make rational decisions is impaired”, the judge said.

Judge Kelly noted Passlow’s “predatory, violent and alarming” history of targeting and attacking vulnerable women.

His previous convictions of sexual offending began in 2013, and include “very serious” charges of false imprisonment and attempted rape.

Judge Kelly said Passlow was a “serious sexual offender” who had been deemed a high risk of sexual reoffending, and the “community needs to be protected from you”.

GV Centre Against Sexual Assault provides free and confidential counselling, information, advocacy and support to people who have been affected by sexual assault. Call 1800 112 343 or visit gvcasa.com.au

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Tuesday, 18th February 2025

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