Alcoholic avoids jail for sex assault on woman on train
AN ALCOHOLIC who put his hand up a woman’s skirt as she travelled home from work by train to Southport has avoided being sent to jail.
Timothy Butler was drinking from a bottle of vodka before he sexually assaulted his victim.
Liverpool crown court heard that it was only the handbag on her lap that stopped the assault going further.
Iain Simkin, prosecuting, said the victim was sitting on the train as Butler, who smelled strongly of alcohol, sat opposite.
He said: “The defendant bent down and touched the front of the complainant’s knee.
“He then touched her above her knee and he kept apologising with regards to his conduct, but he then put his hand up her skirt.
“He reached up to the middle of her thigh and touched that area. She asked him what he was doing and again he said sorry.”
Mr Simkin said that the extremely distressed woman moved away and told a train guard, who called police.
The victim said: “This whole incident has made me anxious using trains.
“I have teamed up with a colleague to travel on the train when I have the opportunity to.
“He has affected my life. He made me cry. I feel totally shocked and disgusted by his actions.
“I truly feel violated. I have been attending counselling sessions at my workplace.”
Butler apologised when confronted by the guard and told police he had been “a silly man”.
But the office worker later claimed that he touched her knee by accident and denied putting his hand up her skirt.
However, Butler, of Victoria Street, Wigan, who has no previous convictions, admitted sexual assault on the day set for his trial.
Katy Appleton, defending, said “remorseful” Butler – who could not remember the attack – was now unemployed, having been made redundant.
She said that he was signed off by his doctor because of stress and was now trying to address his alcoholism, with his partner’s support.
Ms Appleton said: “He has had an addiction to alcohol for the last 10 to 15 years, which has blighted his life, in particular his previous marriage.
“Had he not taken alcohol that day, mixed with the new medication he was taking, he would not have behaved in that way.”
Judge Norman Wright described the woman’s ordeal as a “nasty” sexual assault, leading to understandable psychological trauma.
He said: “It was only because she had a handbag on her lap that stopped it progressing further.”
The judge said that the victim thought drunken Butler was unpredictable and capable of doing something far more serious.
He said: “Going to work she wants to be with somebody else because who knows, it might happen again, she might meet you again.”
Judge Wright sentenced Butler to two months in prison, suspended for 18 months, plus a rehabilitation activity of up to 40 days.
He ordered him to serve a 10-week home curfew, from 8pm to 6am, and to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for seven years.
The judge said: “Metaphorically by the skin of your teeth you have narrowly avoided going to prison.”