Shocking details are revealed of Julia Gillard’s ex-boyfriend Tim Mathieson’s perverted sex assault on a sleeping female friend: ‘Mouth on nipple’

The ex-partner of former Prime Minister Julia Gillard has used his relationship with her to avoid a harsher sentence for perversely assaulting a friend.

Tim Mathieson – known during Ms Gillard’s administration as Australia’s ‘first guy’ – pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual assault and was convicted and fined $7000 on Thursday.

The Melbourne Magistrates’ Court heard Mathieson sucked his sleeping friend’s nipple after she fell asleep on her couch, before going back for more when she objected.

As he begged for mercy, Mathieson’s lawyer Brad Penno gave a lengthy description of his client’s previous relationship with the former prime minister, outlining how they met, fell in love and eventually broke up.

Tim Mathieson sexually assaulted his vulnerable neighbor after she fell asleep on her own sofa

Prosecutors described Mathieson’s crime as an aggravated and opportunistic sexual assault of an alleged girlfriend in her own home.

Mathieson had hoped to walk free without a conviction on a good behavior bond, but magistrate Belinda Franjic had other ideas.

The respected magistrate condemned Mathieson’s behavior, describing it as a serious example of sexual assault.

‘It concerns a victim who is vulnerable because he is sleeping. Second, it took place in the victim’s own home, which makes it particularly egregious. Third, it was not transient… he kept trying to get his mouth on her breast again, so that compounds the severity of the offence,” she said.

‘It is a particularly intimate form of sexual assault.’

The court heard Mathieson’s victim had lived one floor below his Brunswick East apartment, which he had originally bought with the former prime minister.

The pair had met while walking their dogs and became close friends during Victoria’s harsh Covid-19 lockdowns.

On March 13 last year, the court heard the woman invited Mathieson to dinner.

After a long drinking session, the court heard the pair sat down to enjoy a Whitney Houston documentary.

Senior Constable Simpkin said Mathieson pounced when his victim fell asleep and fell on her left side.

‘The complainant woke up some time later and felt someone sucking on her right nipple. “The complainant froze and noticed that her top had been pulled down, exposing her right breast, and that the suspect had his mouth over her right nipple while his hand cupped her right breast,” she said.

Tim Mathieson, the ex-partner of former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a woman. He is pictured with Mrs Gillard in 2010

‘The complainant pushed the suspect away and said, ‘Don’t do that.’ As the complainant pushed the suspect away, he kept trying to get his mouth on her breast again.”

Mathieson left in disgrace before apologizing for his behavior the next day.

He initially denied sexually assaulting his former friend and told police his victim had consensually participated in his vile abuse.

The disgraced hairdresser only pleaded guilty after prosecutors agreed to drop two stalking charges amid allegations he entered the woman’s home without her consent.

Tim Mathieson is accused of deliberately touching the woman’s nipple without her consent in Brunswick East in inner-city Melbourne on March 13 last year

Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard has unwittingly become embroiled in the sordid sexual assault of her ex-partner

The woman gave a heartbreaking victim impact statement to the court, detailing how she was forced to leave the country such was her fear and shame over the unwanted attack.

Mr Penno told the court that Ms Gillard had had a share in Mathieson’s East Brunswick apartment but had never actually lived there with him.

In an attempt to mitigate his client’s transgressions, Mr. Penno claimed that his client’s victim had often slept in his bed.

Mr Penno said Mathieson was extremely drunk at the time of the attack and had little memory of it.

The pair had been friends since 2020 and Mathieson repeatedly said she had no sexual interest in him.

“In the early stages of the relationship, the complainant was unsure how the relationship with Mr Mathieson would develop… it could best be described as a close but non-sexual relationship,” Mr Penno said.

‘It was clear in the later stages of the relationship that the complainant was not interested in pursuing a sexual relationship with Mr Mathieson and she made that clear to him.’

Mathieson was sentenced to ten years in prison for this offence.

Mathieson lived with Ms Gillard at the Lodge in Canberra when she was Prime Minister, but Gillard revealed in early 2022 that the couple had split some time earlier.

He had been a hairdresser when he hooked up with Ms Gillard in 2004.

He has three children, with daughter Sherri Mathieson who once appeared on the television reality show The Bachelor.

Mathieson is pictured leaving his Melbourne law office on Thursday

After Mrs Gillard became Prime Minister in 2010, the couple became the first unmarried couple to live at The Lodge until a leadership crisis toppled her in 2013.

Mathieson regularly accompanied the Prime Minister on assignments in Australia and on her official trips abroad.

During his time as the Prime Minister’s wife, Mathieson volunteered for Kidney Health Australia, the Indigenous Diabetes Association and mental health group Beyond Blue.

He was also a patron of the Australian Men’s Shed Association, which was dedicated to encouraging men to meet and discuss issues in a comfortable environment.

Ms Gillard told the Adelaide Advertiser in March this year that she had split from Mathieson more than a year ago after a decade and a half together.

Despite declaring in 2011 that he wanted to marry Mrs Gillard, the couple never married.