Serial 'sex pest' who targeted woman and two girls is locked up for 11 years

HE TOLD ONE OF HIS VICTIMS: 'I JUST CAN'T HELP MYSELF'

- By MARK NAYLOR

A SERIAL "sex pest" targeted a woman and two girls during three separate incidents that formed a "clear pattern" of offending, some of it "startlingly similar" in its nature.

The woman was asleep after drinking at a social gathering and he was “persistent” in trying to take advantage of her, Hull Crown Court heard.

Joshua Pickering, 29, of 6th Avenue, north Hull, was convicted after a trial of four offences of assault by penetration, three of them involving a woman and the other a young girl. He was cleared of other offences, including sexual assault. He earlier admitted two offences involving sending a threatening message and causing or inciting the sexual exploitation by causing a girl to send indecent images of herself to him.

David Godfrey, prosecuting, said that Pickering did something “startlingly similar” in his behaviour towards two of the victims and there was a “clear pattern”. The two victims were not known to each other.

Pickering met a woman on Facebook and they saw each other in person for the first time at a flat after midnight following a social gathering. “They were talking for a while,” said Mr Godfrey.

It was decided that he could either “crash on a sofa” or go home. The woman was “in a drunken state” and she told him that he could not stay.

"After 15 minutes, he was still there,” said Mr Godfrey. “He started moving closer, kissing her neck.”