A MAN has been jailed for three years for a horrifying sexual attack on a shopworker as she walked home.

Jack Michael Matthews, 26, was high on drink and cocaine and persisted in following the woman in the dark through Selby town centre to the door of her home despite her repeatedly trying to stop him, said Gerald Hendron, prosecuting.

In a victim personal statement, she said that since the incident, she had suffered daily panic attacks, doesn’t go out after dark and needs accompanying home.

She said: “The whole experience has left me very vulnerable and scared and will stay with me for a very long time.”

The Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Batty QC, said Matthews’ actions had amounted to “sexual mauling”.

“You terrorised this poor woman and the effects upon her condition are grave in the extreme.

“You simply, effectively, wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

Matthews, of Station Road, Scholes, Leeds, pleaded guilty to sexual assault on the day he was due to stand trial.

In addition to the three-year jail term, he was put on the sex offenders’ register and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order curbing his behaviour, both for life.

His barrister, Caroline Wigin, said he had been so affected by alcohol and drugs when he committed the offence in February he couldn’t remember what he had done.

But since July, he had started a daily course to kick his cocaine habit and was making good progress.

York Press:

Mr Hendron told York Crown Court the woman was walking through Selby town centre after getting off the bus from York when Matthews accosted her and asked for directions to the train station.

She gave them and as she walked on, he asked if she wanted to share a cigarette with him, go for a drink with him and if he could walk her home.

Each time, she said no, but he continued following her.

Close to her house, he grabbed her from behind and then in front. She managed to get his hand off her and he said: “Are you sure you don’t want to go for a drink?”

She got to her house, where her partner helped her inside.

They alerted police and Matthews was arrested later the same evening outside the Lonsborough Hotel in Selby centre.