Sitting in the witness box at Albion Park Courthouse on a quiet afternoon in July, Illawarra jeweller Moris Simon made a rather vain self-observation that stood in stark contrast with the allegations against him.
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“The thing is madam, I’m like a hero, I do carry a Superman tat[too]...I’m trying to help as much as I can the people in Wollongong,” he said to the prosecutor during questioning over the indecent assault of a vulnerable 15-year-old girl in an alleyway near the Crown Street Mall in February this year.
The brash response did not sit well with the prosecutor, who shot back her own retort: “I think you may have failed, Mr Simon, in being Superman on this occasion because if this young girl needed help you did nothing but harm her.”.
Simon, the son of Simon’s Jewellery patriarch Neil Simon, denied allegations he lured the teenager into Crown Lane then into the alley and molested her after coming to her aid when she was vomiting near the Wollongong Central shopping centre.
The girl told the court Simon had first tried to kiss her, then grabbed her buttock and put his hand inside her pants before she managed to get away.
However, Simon denied touching the teen inappropriately, claiming he had simply provided her with food and water in her faint state.
He claimed he’d taken her into the laneway away from prying eyes because he thought she was affected by drugs, and to be seen helping “a druggie” would “look bad on my dad and me and everyone”.
However, Magistrate Susan McGowan failed to believe Simon’s version of events, finding him guilty of groping the teen.
“I don’t accept Mr Simon’s explanation [of what occurred] as credible or plausible,” she said.
“He said he didn’t want to be seen with ‘a druggie’ but that doesn’t sit well with him wanting to be the hero.”
Magistrate McGowan said CCTV footage capture the pair walking into the laneway a few seconds apart, then exiting about a minute later, again a few seconds apart.
“The time period is short but nevertheless there’s sufficient time in my view for the offence to have occurred,” Magistrate McGowan said, adding she found the teenager had been a reliable witness when giving evidence in court.
Simon was released on conditional bail to live with his sister at Unanderra until his sentencing in November.
