A MAN who groped a “particularly vulnerable” woman against her will – and then tried to persuade her and her husband to withdraw their statements to the police – has been jailed for a year.
Angus Stuart Carleton (54) groped the woman’s buttocks while she and her husband were in his home, the Magistrate’s Court heard.
The court heard the victim was “too traumatised to give oral evidence”, which the Magistrate said was “very rare”.
Days after the incident, Carleton phoned the victim and her husband asking them to retract their statements to the States police.
Advocate Frances Littler, defending, said Carleton had been drunk at the time and that the offence had been “an isolated incident”. She added that he was “at low risk of sexual reconviction”.
But the Magistrate, Bridget Shaw, said: “All these offences are serious and they are certainly serious enough for custody.”
She told Carleton: “This was a particularly vulnerable victim and you have done a very serious degree of harm.
“She was too traumatised to give any formal oral evidence. It is very rare for a victim to be unable to give oral evidence, but this is one such case.”
She jailed Carleton for six months for sexual touching without consent and a consecutive six months for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Carleton was also added to the Sex Offenders Register for five years and issued with a three-year restraining order.
