Sexual predator attacked woman as she was sleeping

SHE WOKE UP IN HORROR

- By MARK NAYLOR

A SLEEPING woman who was among the guests at a drink-fuelled social gathering suddenly woke up in horror to discover that a sneaky sexual predator had quietly pulled down her clothes and was intimately touching her.

She did not know what to do and “froze” because of the sheer shock of what was happening. She later “could not cope with the flashbacks” that she suffered from the upsetting incident and she had been left “stressed out” from the trauma of it, Hull Crown Court heard.

Carl Byfield, 40, of Haisthorpe, near Bridlington, denied an offence of sexual assault but he was convicted by a jury after a trial by a majority of 10 to two. He admitted separate offences of dangerous driving and assaulting a man, causing actual bodily harm, on January 6, 2021.

Stephen Robinson, prosecuting, said that the sexual assault happened following a social gathering where Byfield and other people who were there had been drinking. It had been suggested that Byfield had also taken drugs but he denied this.

The prosecution claimed during the trial that Byfield intimately touched the woman and pulled down her leggings and underwear. She woke up at about 1.30am to find his hand on her legs and him “groping” her chest.