On December 1, he sat on a bench under a tree outside the Unipol gym for about half an hour, as he claimed he was “deciding what to have for dinner”.
CCTV footage showed him getting up when two women walked past.
He followed them “quite closely” before returning to the same bench, the court heard.
At 4.55pm a woman wearing headphones walked past him on her way home from the gym.
Garden got up for a second time and began walking behind her in Union St. Footage from multiple buildings pieced together the path the pair took.
No cameras captured what happened next, but the jury heard Garden quickly overtook the woman, simultaneously “grabbing” her bottom.
“I felt a whole hand on my butt,” the woman said. “I thought it was my boyfriend at the time ... but I knew he was at the library.
“No one else would grab me like that.”
She took out her phone and filmed the man quickly walking away.
She called out to him, “What did you just do?”, but the man continued walking.
“I tried to call out to him and got no response, so I became quite upset.”
She provided a statement to the court, outlining how distressing the assault was.
She no longer felt safe and was left constantly looking over her shoulder.
She felt “particularly violated” as the attack took place in daylight.
“Some men cannot control themselves even if it means traumatising young women.”
Judge David Robinson said it was serious offending.
“Women are objectified and they are vulnerable to this sort of thing.
“We need to protect women’s autonomy.
“They should be unhindered by the fear of someone coming along and grabbing their butt.”
Garden showed no remorse for the attack, the court heard.
When asked why he was lingering around the area, he said: “It’s a free country.”
Crown prosecutor Craig Power said Garden was unmotivated and showed poor prospects for rehabilitation.
