A YOUNG man who sexually assaulted a 74-year-old woman in the doorway of her home has been jailed for four years.

Stephen William Hawes approached the woman outside her home in the Micklegate area of York, pushed her into the doorway and on to the ground and sexually assaulted her.

The woman suffered a broken bone in her foot in the struggle, but fought back, hitting Hawes with a vacuum cleaner extension and a walking stick.

Members of the public who heard the commotion came to her rescue, York Crown Court heard. The Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, said: “This is an unusual case – unusual because of the severity of the impact of what you did to your victim.”

He added: “There is a significant difference in age between you and your victim.

“She is a lady of slender build in her mid-seventies. You are a fitter, stronger young man of 26. There was here a physical assault committed by you in which this lady suffered a broken bone in her foot.”

He said the victim’s dignity had been compromised in the attack which also “destroyed the sanctity of her own home” and caused mental trauma.

Hawes, who has previous convictions for battery, has a drinking problem and had been drunk and on medication at the time of the assault in March.

He asked the victim if she had a husband, and claimed to be looking for a man called John before attacking her, the court heard.

In June, Hawes pleaded guilty to sexual assault, but denied a charge of trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence.

Mark McKone, mitigating, said credit should be given to Hawes for securing an address to live at in Scarborough for after his release and pleading guilty so the victim did not suffer the distress of giving evidence at trial.

He said: “It’s always been the defendant’s case that he cannot remember in any detail what took place, including the actual sexual assault itself. His instinct is that the defendant must be telling the truth about that; it is not something she would fabricate.”

Judge Ashurst sentenced Hawes to six months for breaching two community orders and to three-and-a-half years to be served consecutively for sexual assault.

The 132 days he has already served will be deducted from this sentence.

He was also ordered under the sex offences prevention order to have no contact with the victim and to be put indefinitely on the sex offenders’ register.

Judge Ashurst said: “(The victim) was subjected to a sudden and violent attack by a drunken man in her own home.

“She makes it clear that she has no wish to see you sentenced to an inordinate amount of time – that reflects very well on her.

“If people do commit sex offences, even in drink, to the elderly in their own homes it will be taken very seriously indeed.”