A BINGE drinker subjected a woman to an horrific sex ordeal on a major York street at dead of night, a court heard.

The attack in Huntington Road was the third time James Christopher Stephenson had attacked women at night in the city, Simon Kealey, prosecuting, told York Crown Court.

Defence barrister David Taylor said he did it because he had drunk ten to 12 pints, and several alcopops with vodka.

The former window cleaner has now started a ten-year sentence, including five years in jail and five years' extended supervision by probation officers.

Stephenson, 26, of Morritt Close, Muncaster, York, pleaded guilty to sexual assault and actual bodily harm. He will be on the sex offenders' register for life.

Judge Paul Hoffman, the Recorder of York, said: "This was a bad case of a night-time sexual attack on a complete stranger, accompanied by gratuitous violence."

Mr Kealey said the latest victim, a German woman, was walking home along Huntington Road near the city centre at about 1.30am on February 19 after watching a late film, when she saw Stephenson walking back and forwards on a traffic island in the middle of the deserted road.

She had gone ten or 20 yards past him when he ran up, grabbed her throat from behind and sexually molested her. Then he put her to the ground, sat astride her and tried to unzip her jeans as she screamed for help and struggled to get free.

When he pushed her face to the side, she bit his hand and he punched her face more than once. Only when two women approached did he run off along the River Foss, leaving her bruised and shaken. He was arrested in Fossway shortly afterwards.

In a victim impact statement to the court, the woman said the incident had had a deep psychological effect upon her, and left her with dental and facial health problems.

Mr Kealey said that in 1996 Stephenson grabbed two women's bottoms from behind at night, one when she was waiting to get into a car in Castle car park and the other when she was in a telephone kiosk on Clifford Street.

Mr Taylor said Stephenson had a drink problem and deeply regretted his actions. He had never intended to rape the German woman.

Updated: 10:29 Monday, October 03, 2005