A 22-YEAR-OLD man who broke into a woman’s home and sexually assaulted her while she slept has been jailed.
Raul Tarsicio Abreu Freitas was sentenced to four-and-a-half years after being found guilty of illegal entry with intent to commit a crime and sexual touching without consent.
He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years and is subject to a restraining order for an indeterminate period of time.
Crown Advocate Matthew Maletroit, prosecuting, told the Royal Court that last summer the defendant and the victim attended a party of a mutual friend.
When the victim left the party to return home to her flat, the defendant followed her and asked if she had anything to top his drink up with and if she had a lighter and some tobacco.
The defendant followed the victim inside the flat and when she asked him to leave, he tried to kiss her. She rejected those advances and again told him to ‘go’.
Later that night the victim woke up to find the defendant in her bed naked trying to kiss her neck, he also tried to touch her breast.
The victim was in shock and shouted at Freitas to leave and he did so. Later that morning she called the police and the defendant was arrested.
Forensic teams identified his fingerprints on and around the kitchen window and he was found guilty following a Royal Court trial on 26 January.
Advocate Francesca Pinel, defending, argued that the length of the custodial sentence should be reduced as the degree of sexual touching was ‘at the lower end of the scale’ and the defendant stopped when he was told to – something she said was uncommon during most sexual offences.
She argued that the offence should be considered opportunistic rather than premeditated.
Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae, delivering the sentence, said the offence was a ‘premeditated assault on a vulnerable woman who was asleep in the place she is entitled to feel safest’.
