Bully filmed sex and assaulted woman
A“COWARD” who secretly filmed a woman while they were having sex and later dragged her by the hair in the street after an unexpected encounter has been given the “benefit of the doubt”.
Anthony Blakemore, 28, of Caithness Court, initially denied the charges of voyeurism and assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) on September 3 last year but eventually pleaded guilty on August 2 last month, before appearing to learn his punishment at Chester Crown Court.
Dafydd Roberts, prosecuting, said the first charge related to recording a woman without her knowledge while they had sex and filming himself touching her while she was asleep.
When his victim discovered what had happened, she was “horrified” and “confronted him”.
Mr Roberts said: “He broke down saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just wanted them for when I’m by myself. I think you’re beautiful’.”
Blakemore and the woman encountered each other unexpectedly on a night out in Runcorn at a later date and he directed a misogynistic slur at her, then claimed: “Of course I’ve still got that stuff on my phone, I’ve been watching it and showing it to people.”
When she tried to take the phone from him, he grabbed her wrist and pressed his thumb into it, then kicked her legs and pulled her to the ground.
Blakemore then dragged her by her hair extensions along the ground resulting in them being “pulled out” along with a clump of her own hair.
Mr Roberts said she suffered a bruise on the wrist where he grabbed her, bruises on the legs and pain down the right side of her body.
The assault left her “constantly on edge”.
Andrew McInnes, defending presented some written references for Runcorn man Blakemore to the court for the judge to read at the start of proceedings and argued his client had a “realistic prospect of rehabilitation”.
He also cited his client’s “immaturity” in mitigation, and spoke of Blakemore’s “pride” in his job, although no details were provided of what he does for a living, adding that Blakemore “regrets the harm that’s been caused” and despite what he said to the woman, he had really deleted the videos and not shown them to anyone.
Judge Thompson raised concerns that Blakemore had sought to minimise the nature of the ABH in his probation interview, and said: “Maybe I’m old fashioned, when I was being brought up it was seen as the ultimate act of cowardice, because you’re more powerful and stronger, and these sorts of men tend to reappear before the court.
“The ones who don’t tend to accept and be horrified by what they’ve done. “He should be ashamed of himself.” He branded Blakemore’s actions “extremely cowardly”, but gave him the “benefit of the doubt”, sentencing him to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years, reserving any breaches to himself.
Judge Thompson also ordered 200 hours of unpaid work, the completion of a course to improve Blakemore’s attitude towards women, and he placed the defendant on the sex offenders register for seven years, in addition to ordering a restraining order.
During his sentencing remarks, he said: “You grabbed her wrist and kicked her and dragged her to the floor by the hair – the actions of a bully, the actions of a coward.”
Blakemore rejoiced with members of his family after leaving the court.