A YOUNG man sexually assaulted a complete stranger in the street in the middle of York.

George Neville Anthony Daley, 21, put his hand under the woman’s skirt and touched her as she waited for a taxi in Rougier Street, said Mahmood Awan, prosecuting.

As he walked away, an eye-witness went to the woman’s assistance.

“She felt upset,” said the prosecutor . “She felt disgusted and sick by what had happened.”

The woman now feels scared and that she is in danger whenever she is in a public place, the court heard.

Daley, of White Apron Street, South Kirby, near Pontefract, pleaded guilty to sexual assault at York Magistrates' Court.

Lee-Anne Robins-Hicks, mitigating for Daley, said: “He is at a real loss to explain how this matter happened, save to acknowledge that whilst in drink he acted in a manner that was entirely out of character for him.”

District judge Adrian Lower told Daley: “This was a violation of her person and personal privacy.”

He gave Daley an 18-month community order with 30 days’ rehabilitative activities and 150 hours’ unpaid work and banned him from contacting the woman in any way for 18 months.

He also put him on the sex offenders’ register for five years and ordered him to pay £85 prosecution costs and a £90 statutory surcharge.

Mr Awan said the woman had anxiety and depression but had managed to control it to the point where she could stop taking medication and having counselling.

She was out with friends on January 11 and at 2am the next morning was waiting for a taxi near the bus stops in Rougier Street when she was sexually assaulted.

“Immediately her emotions were everywhere, and she could feel her anxiety taking over,” said Mr Awan.

She had to stop work and resume taking medication and counselling again and now found it difficult to leave her home.

Mrs Robins-Hicks said Daley “bitterly regrets” what he had done and wished he could undo it.

“It is entirely a one-off incident,” she said.

He was studying and doing his best to better himself.

When looking for work, he would have to deal with the consequences of having a sexual conviction.