Published date: 20 January 2017 |
Published by: Staff reporterRead more articles by Staff reporterEmail reporter
A PENSIONER who sexually assaulted a young mum in a bus shelter escaped immediate custody.
Alexander Brown was said to have been staring at her chest as she held one of her children.
He tickled the daughter’s tummy but placed his finger and thumb on her left breast and fondled her, it was alleged.
She pulled his hand away and he whispered in her ear asking her if she liked it – and if she wanted him to do it again.
But she called him a pervert and called for help from a passer-by.
He walked off and the victim, who feared he might do it to someone else, reported the matter to the police.
She felt scared and vulnerable and was shocked at what he had done.
The victim was waiting with her children at a bus stop on Deeside at the time. The 66-year-old defendant, of Dodd’s Court in Shotton, had pleaded not guilty and was due to go on trial at Flintshire Magistrates Court at Mold in December.
But he changed his plea and admitted indecent assault.
Today he received a 22-week prison sentence but it was suspended for two years.
He was placed on 60 days’ rehabilitation and was subjected to a tagged curfew for eight weeks to ensure he remained indoors between 9pm and 7am.
He was ordered to register with the police as a sex offender for seven years.
Magistrates told him that he posed a high risk of harm to women and made an indefinite restraining order not to approach the victim.
Prosecutor Rhian Jackson said his claim in his pre-sentence report that it had not been deliberate and that he had not made comments to her were not accepted by the prosecution.
Interviewed, he said he was having a laugh and a joke, and described himself as a ‘happy-go-lucky’ guy.
The defendant had been at The Clwyd public house, but said he had only been drinking orange juice because he was on medication.
At the bus stop he saw the victim with a child on her knee, she instigated the conversation, saying she recognised him, and they had a friendly conversation for 10-15 minutes, he said.
He denied assaulting her in interview.
His guilty plea was on the basis of touching her over her clothing.
Defending solicitor Mr Phillip Lloyd Jones said that it had been alleged that the defendant had touched the woman’s breast on her skin.
They had been chatting for some seven or eight minutes, her daughter was sitting on her knee and it was accepted that he started tickling the child, which he now understood was inappropriate.
He conceded that during that incident that there was contact with the lady’s breast.
Mr Lloyd Jones said that the Press were entitled to report the proceedings but following the last hearing he had been threatened and his windows had been smashed.
“He has had time to reflect,” he said.
“He is a very sociable individual but he now knows to be more circumspect in the way he greets people in the future.”
The defendant was not in good health and there were concerns how he would cope in custody.
The court heard how the defendant had a relevant conviction for a similar offence before Mold Crown Court in 2008.
At that stage, he received a 22-week prison sentence suspended for two years and placed on supervision – with seven years registration as a sex offender.
Mrs Jackson said that the original offence occurred when he was in hospital awaiting an ECG. He pulled a nurse towards him after grabbing her backside.
She almost lost her balance and fell onto him, and he held her close to him by his knees.
He later approached her and asked her to come back and do his blood pressure again.
The defendant said that he would squeeze her tighter and that he would not say anything if she did not.
http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/171557/pensioner-from-shotton-spared-jail-over-indecent-assault-of-mum-at-a-bus-stop.aspx
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