The former chief executive of Mallee District Aboriginal Services (MDAS) showed a "sense of entitlement" when he sexually assaulted a woman while affected by alcohol and prescription medication, a court has been told.
Harold Rudolph "Rudy" Kirby, 47, has pleaded guilty to putting his hands up a young woman's dress in Mildura's Sandbar pub in March this year – an incident which effectively ended his career at the helm of the north-west Victorian organisation.
Kirby, also a former manager of the Koori Court and deputy director of the Koori Justice Centre, was charged on April 1 and resigned as chief executive of MDAS days later.
His barrister Viola Katotas told Melbourne Magistrates Court that Kirby "would have been forced out [of MDAS] in any event" had he not quit, and that "his career is basically finished".
She gave Magistrate Gregory McNamara a copy of Kirby's CV, a letter of reference from MDAS chairman Keith Hampton and said he was the only one of 17 siblings to finish high school.
Ms Katotas told the court the service's turnover increased from $10 million to $35 million during Kirby's eight years in charge, while it went from employing 110 staff, 60 of whom were Indigenous, to 300 staff including 140 Aboriginal people.
Anxiety followed blackmail attempt
Ms Katotas said Kirby had become the target of a woman's "campaign of harassment and threats" while working at MDAS, as well as a separate blackmail attempt.
"There is no diagnosis of depression or PTSD as such, although the GP, the doctor, refers to PTSD, he also refers to stress and anxiety," Ms Katotas said.
She said Kirby planned to move to Melbourne and asked Mr McNamara to consider deferring his sentencing for six months to allow him time to receive mental health treatment.
But prosecutor Raymond Elishapour said the sexual assault was "brazen", "opportunistic" and showed a "sense of entitlement" and that delaying sentencing would "leave [the victim] hanging".
Mr McNamara said there was "considerable community concern that young women are subject to this sort of behaviour … and it's often not sufficiently recognised the harm this can do".
He said Kirby's consumption of alcohol and medication was "no excuse".
Today's plea hearing was Kirby's second after a Mildura-based magistrate adjourned the case to be heard by a colleague last month because of Kirby's past involvement with the Department of Justice.
Mr McNamara ordered Kirby be assessed for a corrections order before he is due to reappear on Friday for sentencing.
