A MAN who exposed himself to staff at a Coventry hospital and sexually assaulted a member of staff has avoided jail.
Trevor Allen also tried to carry out a sexual assault on another staff member while he was being assessed at the Caludon Centre at University Hospital in Coventry.
But despite similar previous convictions, he escaped being jailed after a judge at Warwick Crown Court heard he had already spent ten months in custody on remand.
So Allen (61) of no fixed address, was given an 18-month sentence suspended for two years, with a rehabilitation activity for 30 days and a condition that he take part in a sex offender programme.
Judge Peter Cooke also ordered Allen, who had pleaded guilty to charges of exposure, sexual assault and attempted sexual assault, to register as a sex offender for ten years.
Prosecutor Matthew Barnes said that Allen had initially denied the charges when he appeared at the court in April last year, but later changed his pleas at a pre-trial hearing, since when the case had been adjourned for various reports on him.
The offences go back to March last year after Allen had been admitted to the Caludon Centre for a 28-day assessment.
“In the days before he began to offend, when on the ward, his behaviour was intimidating, and he would walk around naked and make comments to female members of staff.
“On Tuesday the 13th of March a female member of staff was completing ward checks when, in a corridor, he approached her from behind and pushed fire doors open.
“She looked behind and saw him with his trousers and pants down, exposing himself and saying ‘Come on lady, I’ve been looking for you.’
“She was frightened and ran past him to a locked staff room where she was able to open the door and lock it behind her, but he remained on the other side of the door with his arms up and still exposing himself,” said Mr Barnes.
Another female staff member then came through the doors and saw Allen, who went up to her with a smirk on his face and saying ‘Oh hello’ in a way which suggested sexual interest.
He stepped forward and pushed against her with his body, and when she told him sharply to ‘get off,’ he smirked and walked away – and then asked her not to tell anyone ‘or they’ll send me to prison,’ which showed he knew what he was doing was wrong.
Allen was arrested later that month as he was being discharged from the hospital, but claimed he did not know what was going on and denied committing any sexual offences.
Mr Barnes said Allen had similar previous convictions in 2016 when he had made sexual advances to a woman at a bus stop, another woman and a female civil enforcement officer, and another conviction the following year after he had pushed a woman in a bank against a wall and touched her bottom.
Judge Cooke commented: “He’s a man who has done himself irreparable damage by alcohol abuse. These are staff members performing an important public function being targeted at their place of work.”
The court heard that Allen’s sexual offending began when he was 58, and was blamed on ‘the damage he has caused to his brain through 30 years of abusing alcohol.’
His barrister pointed out that he had been in custody since his arrest, the equivalent of a 20-month sentence, and ‘he recognises now that his behaviour was completely unacceptable.’
Judge Cooke told Allen: “I find yours a very troubling case. You’ve been abusing alcohol since you turned 18, and have destroyed parts of your brain to the point where your cognitive function and your ability to control your behaviour is impaired.
“That does not mean you have no responsibility for what you are doing. You knew full-well you had misbehaved.
“My main concern is to protect the public insofar as the law allows me to. I can’t deal with you as a dangerous offender because you don’t qualify for the imposition of such a sentence.
“It troubles me, but my hands are tied. Any immediate custody would be ordering your imminent release because of the time you’ve been on remand.
“Therefore the only way I can deal with you and factor in some level of public protection is by a suspended sentence.”
