Director put on sex offenders’ register for kissing woman on the shoulder

A COMPANY director has been put on the sex offenders’ register after kissing a woman on the shoulder.

William Freeman, 58, a director at Northampton Water Ski Club, was talking to the woman about a swarm of wasps she had seen on the roof of a building when he made a pass at her, Warwick Crown Court heard.

The woman pulled away and Freeman apologised. She reported the incident to police and the director was arrested. Freeman, of Barford, Warwick, originally denied sexual assault, but changed his plea to guilty on the first day of his trial on Wednesday.

He was given a conditional discharge for 12 months and ordered to sign as a sex offender. Judge Sylvia de Bertodano said he had stayed out of trouble in the 18 months since the incident. But she added: “I don’t know what was going through your mind, and I don’t suppose you do either. You have had a very serious lesson taught to you. You do not make advances towards women who don’t want you to.”

Prosecutor Bernard Linnemann said the incident had caused the woman great hardship. She was undergoing counselling and living “a life of avoidance” when out because she was worried about meeting Freeman again.

Ann Cotcher QC, defending, said her client had not even had a parking ticket before this happened. “It was an incident that lasted but a moment, but one he has regretted ever since,” she said.