Last updated 19:39, Thursday, 27 March 2008

A MAN who indecently assaulted a 16-year-old girl after dragging her down a dark alleyway in Maryport has been sent to prison for two years and put on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.

A judge at Carlisle Crown Court said that 34-year-old David Thompson – nicknamed “Wurzel” – posed a “high risk of serious harm to women”.

The court heard that the father-of-two grabbed a girl as she walked home after a night out.

He dragged her 30 metres down the alleyway, where he told her as she struggled: “What’s wrong with you? It will be all right. I have got plenty of money.”

Thompson then groped the girl and tried to kiss her, but she ran off crying when he was disturbed by a passing car.

Since the incident last October the girl had lost her self-confidence and often woke up at night screaming.

Thompson, of Rydal Avenue, Maryport, pleaded guilty to a charge of sexual assault.

Andrew Carney, defending, said that Thompson had a problem recognising the boundaries between men and women.

Mr Carney said Thompson was badly affected by the break-up of his 10-year marriage five years ago, although he accepted that did not excuse what he had done to the girl.