A yoga instructor has been jailed for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl during class while her mother was on another mat about one meter away
47-year-old Chandra Bhoga was hosting the girl and her mother, who will not be named, at his Tarneit home, in Melbourne's west, for an early morning yoga class in July 2018.
When the girl complained of breathing troubles and congestion, Bhoga offered to help. He gave the mother a few poses to complete while he moved closer to her daughter.
The father-of-two then put his hands under the minor girl’s bra and inside her underwear and sexually assaulted her.
Bhoga then grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand towards his genitals.
When she resisted, he asked her: "You aren't feeling comfortable?"
The girl said "no".
"You are feeling a bit tense," he told her as the class finished.
"We will continue this another time."
The teen went to school that day and narrated her ordeal to her friends,
On Friday, Aug. 20, Bhoga, who had pleaded guilty to two counts of sexually assaulting a child under 16, appeared at the Victorian County Court, where he was sentenced to four years in prison with 19 months non-parole. He has already served one month in custody.
Judge Frank Gucciardo said Bhoga had demonstrated "bare-faced manipulation" by abusing the minor girl after winning the trust of her mother.
"This offense… was committed in a brazen manner, in the presence of the child's mother, under the pretense of a health practice, in a manner which was facilitated by the trust reposed in you by both as a teacher and practitioner which you breached," he said.
"The violation of a child's physical integrity by an adult is not just shameful and abhorrent to the community, but also leaves longstanding damage and trauma, which blights lives for years."
"Your moral culpability is high (and) your conduct is reprehensible, motivated by sexual gratification," Gucciardo told Bhoga.
The girl's mother previously said her daughter had lost her "sleep and serenity" since the abuse.
Bhoga was born in India and moved to Australia in 2005. He is married to a doctor and has two children, including a nine-year-old son with autism.
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