A SEX offender who took photos of himself abusing a sleeping woman is today awaiting sentence.

William Wilson Allan, 27, used the victim’s phone to take sexual pictures of her including some in which he was assaulting her, said Nick Adlington, prosecuting.

He then tried to cover his tracks by deleting them but she found them after she woke up, York Crown Court heard.

The jury heard that Allan had gone back with the woman and her partner to her home after all three had been drinking together at another house.

Allan refused to attend court on the day the woman gave evidence against him.

He sent a note to the judge from the cell where he was being held on remand claiming he couldn’t last a day without his e-cigarette. Smoking is not allowed in court buildings.

“It is probably the most fatuous excuse I have heard, in 30 years at the Bar, for not attending,” said Mr Adlington.

The trial continued without Allan, and he did leave his cell to attend all the remaining days of the trial.

Allan, of no fixed address, denied voyeurism and sexual assault, but was convicted by the jury.

The jury acquitted him of making a malicious phone call on the same phone to another woman on the same night, and a second, more serious, sexual assault on the first woman. He had denied these charges too.

The second woman alleged Allan threatened to rape her and her daughter, but Allan denied phoning her at all.

The first woman told the jury that she, Allan, and her partner were drinking at her York home in the early hours of May 1, 2021.

She said she went to bed when Allan and her partner left the home in a taxi shortly after 3am, believing they had left for the night.

Both men told the jury they had gone to get some cocaine and returned shortly afterwards to find her asleep.

Her partner said some time later, he left the house and did not return for many hours. 

The jury saw nine photos Allan took on the first woman’s phone after the partner had left. Some included his blackened fingernail.

He claimed in evidence that although he had suffered a hand injury, the nail was not nearly as black as that in the photos.

He denied that he had taken the photos or sexually assaulted the first woman and denied going into her bedroom after the partner left.

The first woman alleged that when she woke at 7am, Allan was sexually assaulting her in a serious way. He said he was asleep on the sofa downstairs when she woke up. He claimed that he was “off his head” on cocaine and alcohol.

Allan will be sentenced next month. He was remanded in custody.