Former SA funeral director Desmond Lindsay Bowen laughs with friends after suspended sentence for sex crimes Des Bowen has a light moment with his supporters after leaving the District Court with a suspended jail sentence for indecently assaulting a male youth in a funeral parlour 40 years ago. Picture: Greg Higgs Source: News Limited A FUNERAL director who indecently assaulted a male employee 40 years ago has shared a laugh with his lawyer and supporters after avoiding an immediate jail term. Desmond Lindsay Bowen, 71, of Glenunga, was sentenced by the District Court today, having pleaded guilty to one count of indecent assault. Bowen admitted that, between March 1972 and March 1973, he repeatedly touched the genitals and buttocks of one of his employees, then 17, in a funeral parlour's change room. He was, at the time, general manager of that company - more than a decade later, he and his wife started their own business, which has since gone into liquidation. In sentencing today, Judge Paul Rice said the single charge was representative of a course of conduct that involved between 12 and 20 indecent assaults upon the victim. "Although these events occurred over 40 years ago, they have not dimmed for the victim," he said. He was vulnerable, young, sexually naive and immature ... he experienced horror, shock and disbelief. He felt violated and left that employment (and suffers) ongoing effects. Judge Rice said Bowen was a Rotarian who volunteered at his church, a member of the Australian and British Institutes of Embalmers and a Justice of the Peace. He said civil proceedings between Bowen and his victim had recently been settled for an undisclosed sum. He said Bowen suffered from a number of medical and psychological ailments for which he took "a bevy of medications." Judge Rice said Bowen's early guilty plea and genuine contrition warranted a 25 per cent discount in his penalty. He jailed Bowen for 15 months, with a six-month non-parole period, suspended on condition of a 12-month, $1000 good behaviour bond. Bowen declined to comment as he left court, but paused further down Gouger St to chat and laugh with his lawyer and supporters. Bowen's victim told The Advertiser he was "just a little disappointed" with the sentence. "He should have at least got the 15 months (in jail)," he said. I've paid for this (offending) for 40 years ... I'm not happy. Despite his disappointment, the man urged other sex abuse victims to come forward. "Pursue it, you've got to, you've absolutely got to," he said. It's some closure.