A woman was disturbed in the middle of the night by an intruder kissing her bare bottom as she slept in bed.
Leeds Crown Court today heard the victim, living in the Sheepridge area of Huddersfield, was wearing only a T Shirt.
She had left her front door unlocked but closed to allow her daughter, who was out, to get back into the house.
Howard Shaw prosecuting said around 2.30am she “became aware that somebody was kissing her bottom.”
She recognised James Kevin Bradshaw who was known to her because he had borrowed cigarettes from her in the past.
She shouted at him to get out and when he left she immediately called the police.
He was arrested a short time later and admitted going into her home without permission and kissing her bottom and said it was because he was “in drink.”
Lorrain Harris representing 50-year-old Bradshaw, said he struggled with mental health and drink problems and felt “embarrassed and disgusted by his actions.”
“He is very, very remorseful and understands how she must have felt in that situation,” she said.
He had been drinking since a funeral the previous day. He had knocked on the door and when there was no answer let himself in. She urged the court to impose a sentence which could provide support for his problems.
Bradshaw, of Browning Road, Deighton, Huddersfield admitted sexual assault and was jailed for 16 months and ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years.
Judge Tom Bayliss QC told him the offence was too serious not to receive immediate custody.
“The sexual assault in itself may not have been the gravest but the circumstances in which it occurred make it a serious matter,” he said.
“A woman asleep in her own bed at 2.30am, the place where she was entitled to feel safe, but you invaded that private space, you walked into her home in the early hours of the morning and you sexually assaulted her by kissing her bare bottom.”
He said Bradshaw had 34 previous convictions for 55 offences, mainly violence and dishonesty, although there was one sexual offence in 1985.
