A MAN has been convicted of sexually touching a teenage girl in a St Helier bar after his ‘exuberant’ dancing turned into unwanted physical contact.
The Magistrate’s Court heard that 45-year-old Lloyd William Evans had approached the 17-year-old victim on the dance floor at Chambers in Mulcaster Street, and that she had recoiled after being grabbed in the genital area before Evans’s hand then moved up her front to her chest.
Evans was convicted after a day-long trial during which he had pleaded not guilty to the offence, which took place last November and was reported to police soon afterwards.
In her closing speech at the trial, Advocate Carla Carvalho, prosecuting, said that the victim ‘will forever remember the night for being sexually assaulted by a complete stranger’.
She said: ‘The incident was over in seconds, but the impact will leave a lasting impression. You can be sure that, despite alcohol being consumed, her [the victim’s] recollections are reliable, credible and consistent.’
The trial had heard from a witness who said she was assaulted in the same way later that evening and Advocate Carvalho said: ‘What are the chances that two young women are alleging that they were both assaulted on the dance floor that same night and they are making it up?’
But Advocate James Bell, defending, countered: ‘There is only an offence if there is intentional touching. If a person recklessly and inadvertently touches someone, that would not be an offence.’
He added: ‘All the prosecution witnesses had been drinking alcohol, and may have overreacted.’
Delivering her judgment, the Magistrate, Bridget Shaw, said she found both of the women who gave evidence to be truthful and reliable witnesses and she could not see how what had taken place had not been deliberate.
She said: ‘There was upward movement of his [Evans’s] hand, he was not reaching out to stop himself falling – she [the victim] was not touched in an area that could have been an accident.’
Mrs Shaw said CCTV evidence showed Evans dancing in what she described as ‘an exuberant manner likely to gain the attention of others’ immediately before the incident, which was timed at 11.38pm.
The court heard that in Mrs Shaw’s view, the subsequent report of a second incident countered any suggestion that what had occurred could have had an innocent explanation. The Magistrate added that she did not consider Evans a credible or honest witness.
Mrs Shaw said she considered there had ‘undoubtedly’ been touching and that it had been deliberate, and that a reasonable person would ‘undoubtedly’ agree that the touching was sexual.
The case was adjourned to allow time for the preparation of a pre-sentence report, with Evans bailed to return to court on 18 October
