Frightened carer traumatised by laughing sex attacker from Bedlington

The victim was carrying out her duties in a client's house, while listening to music, when Michael Norris turned and "stumbled in" to the living room in a drunken state.

Newcastle Crown Court heard Norris started dancing around the room and edged closer and closer towards the care worker, while she was ironing.

Prosecutor Graham O'Sullivan told the court: "She felt uncomfortable.

"Then he came up behind her and started to dance extremely close to her. He then grabbed her hips. She could feel his penis against her back. He was thrusting his hips into her and gyrating behind her.

"She felt threatened and scared."

The court heard Norris then grabbed the woman's arm and tried to lift it up into the air as she was holding the iron.

She then shouted at him "what are you doing, get off me" and got out of the room.

Mr O'Sullivan said Norris "laughed throughout" the attack and also when he was confronted about what he did.

He added that prosecutors accept it was a "one-off offence by the defendant, who had drank too much and was behaving inappropriately as a result".

In a victim statement, the carer said: "It made me feel scared. I didn't know what was going to happen. It has affected me a lot.

"It has upset me.

"It has knocked my confidence in my job, I no longer feel comfortable around male clients.

"I am traumatised by the whole incident."

Norris, 48, of John Brown Court, Bedlington, denied sexual assault but was convicted by a jury after a trial.

Mr Recorder Toby Hedworth KC said: "This was, in my assessment, a one-off sexual offence because you had had far too much to drink and you behaved completely inappropriately."

Norris was sentenced to nine months, suspended for 18 months, with rehabilitation requirements.