Can a defendant be found guilty of a charge of assault for touching a young girl's buttocks by accident?

Defendant's statement to the police, while conceding that his hand had touched K.C.'s buttocks, did not constitute an admission of the necessary assault element of "an intentional act and actual knowledge of those facts sufficient to establish that the act by its nature will probably and directly result in the application of physical force against another." (People v. Williams (2001) 26 Cal.4th 779, 790.) As such, it is reasonably probable that had K.C.'s mother not volunteered testimony about defendant's conduct toward her son, defendant would not have been convicted of any of the crimes on which the jury was instructed. Accordingly, defendant's conviction cannot be allowed to stand.