Company boss faces jail over hotel sex assault as girlfriend slept nearby

Horton, of Pembroke Street, Rotherham, also tried to reach between the woman’s legs at a sushi bar and pubs in Soho that night.

After they all fell asleep at the four-star Apex Hotel, the victim awoke to find Horton on top of her, laughing as he sexually assaulted her.

Horton, then working as a company director at a construction firm, later told police he had thought he was stroking the leg of his girlfriend, who was asleep in the adjacent single bed.

The businessman was convicted of four counts of sexual assault and one charge of assault by penetration by a jury.

The woman said she awoke at 2am to find Horton “breathing on my face, with something inside me”, adding: ‘He was laughing.

“When I got home, I didn’t do anything or talk to anybody.”

Giving evidence, the woman said she had initially thought she would tell no-one about the assaults.

“When I came home, my intention was to forget about it and never speak about it ever,” she said.

“I just wanted to move on, carry on, never think about it ever again, but I couldn’t function, I just couldn’t function at all.

“I had told him to stop touching me, I didn’t consent to that.

“I found it really disrespectful that he was touching me when I had to asked him not to, but he just kept on doing it.’

The victim was encouraged to report the incident to police after talking to her close friend.

Mr David Povall, prosecuting, said: “It became clear that she was very distressed and disturbed, not herself.

“It took five days after she came home before she went to the police about what had happened.”

When questioned, Horton admitted to police he had “got to cop-a-feel” earlier in the day.

He said: “There was lots of flirty innuendoes and conversation throughout the day.

“We were talking about boobs, my partner’s boobs, the alleged victim’s boobs, and if I remember I think I got to cop-a-feel of both.”

In his police interview played to the jury, Horton said: “We were getting in the taxi and I think I again copped a feel of the woman’s boobs and my partner pulled it away.”

The officer asked: “Was that intentional touching of her boob?”

Horton replied: “I mean I was incredibly drunk... I only know because my partner told me.”

Horton claimed he had drunkenly “soiled” himself and fell asleep on the floor where he accidentally touched the victim’s leg when getting up, believing it to be his girlfriend’s.

Giving evidence, Horton told jurors the woman had been being “very flirty” and “open” about her sexual preferences which had made him feel “titillated”.

He said: “There was no reason to believe that she did not consent.

“I was going on the behaviour that she did not remonstrate with me.”

Horton was convicted of four counts sexual assault, and one count of assault by penetration.

He was bailed to an address in Cornwall ahead of sentencing on July 23.