Security guard 'ashamed' of sex assault

A Coles security guard who pressured a young shoplifter into having sex with him said it was the most shameful act he had ever committed on another person, the County Court has heard.

Turkish national Onur Yildirim, 26, has pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual penetration of a 16-year-old child who was under his care, supervision and authority.

The court was told that on July 11, Yildirim was working at Coles in Knox City in Melbourne's east when he saw the girl take a bottle of body spray from the store without paying.

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He took her to the manager's office and told her that if he reported her to police it could ruin her life, but if she offered him sex he would not report her.

The girl told the court in an impact statement that by agreeing to his demands "I got myself out of that situation but then I got myself into a worse one".

CCTV footage of the incident shows Yildirim leading the girl to a disabled toilet in the shopping centre where they stayed for nine minutes while Yildirim penetrated her.

His crime came to light on the same day when the girl told a friend in a phone conversation what had happened and which was overheard by the friend's mother who then encouraged the victim to go to the police.

Yildirim's counsel Peter Chadwick, SC, said his client did not have a criminal past and had come to Australia looking for work with his electronics degree.

He described Yildirim's action as a lapse of judgment which had "catapulted him from a law-abiding, upright, fine member of the community to a prisoner".

In his statement to the court, Yildirim said he was very remorseful and left work early that day because he realised the enormity of what he had done and how shameful he felt.

Mr Chadwick said Yildirim had spent the past 151 days since he was arrested in protective custody in the Melbourne Remand Centre.

Mr Chadwick said that if he was sentenced to more than one year's jail he risked being deported to Turkey and away from his current partner.

Prosecutor Michelle Zammit said there had been a level of aggravated degradation involved with the girl forced to lie on the toilet floor and the sex carried out without a condom.

She said the girl had told him three times during the sexual assault that she didn't want to go ahead with it but he continued.

"That makes it more than just a lapse of concentration or a foolish slip," she said.

She told Judge Christine Thornton that a suitable penalty for the crime was in the six to eight year range.

The sentencing was adjourned to December 17.