Sex attacker high on spice groped woman walking with husband

Carl Lee Corker (47), of Mount Pleasant Road, Masbrough, was high on spice when he attacked the woman - who had offered to help him - on December 29 last year.

He appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday after admitting to the sexual assault at an earlier hearing on the day his trial was due to start.

Prosecutor Mr Brian Outhwaite said the couple had been walking near Rotherham Interchange when they saw Corker and another man slumped against a wall.

The men seemed “spaced out”, as though on drugs, Mr Outhwaite said.

As the couple passed, Corker got up and began following them. They began to jog, then run, but Corker pursued them.

The victim asked Corker what he wanted, before offering to help if he was in distress.

Mr Outhwaite said Corker replied: “I want you.” 

He then caught up with the victim, grabbing her breasts through her clothes.

Judge Rachael Harrison heard that Corker groped the woman for several seconds, as her husband and a bystander fought him.

They detained the attacker, who was then arrested and taken to Main Street police station.

There he denied attacking the woman, telling officers that he was feeling unwell and fell against her.

Mr Ian Goldsack, mitigating, said he had been “wholly incapacitated” by what he thought was a cigarette, but which turned out to be spice.

“He had not been drinking, had not knowingly been taking any illicit substances,” said Mr Goldsack.

He added: “The actual contact was very limited and was over winter clothes.”

In a victim impact statement read to the court, the woman said she was “extremely upset and devastated” by the attack.

The court heard that Corker had nine previous convictions for breaching court orders, as well as recent and historic sex offences.

Judge Harrison sentenced Corker to 22 months in prison, to run concurrently with a 20 month term for burglary which was committed after the sexual assault.