Ex-footballer spared jail for sexual assault

GROPE Chris Killen A FORMER Manchester City player has avoided jail after climbing into a woman’s bed and groping her as she slept.

Chris Killen, 35, was in a “stupefied state” after an eight-hour drinking binge.

The New Zealand-born dad of two got into bed next to the victim, who was in a room with two other women at a house in Bury, Greater Manchester, after a party.

She “froze” then felt a hand on her bottom, Minshull Street crown court heard. Killen, of Adlington, Cheshire, pleaded guilty earlier to sexual assault.

Lisa Judge, mitigating, said: “The apology is a full and frank one.” But the victim, age not given, said: “I felt, and still feel, uneasy on my own.”

Killen was yesterday given 12 months’ jail suspended for 18 months. He must also sign the sex offenders’ register.