A man who snuck into a woman’s home and sexually assaulted her as she slept has been jailed for 18 months at Dundee Sheriff Court.
James Dutracy, 30, previously admitted entering the woman’s home, in the Forfar area, without her permission and committing a sex act on her as she slept on June 13 last year.
The court previously heard that Dutracy had tried to kiss the woman earlier that evening when the two had been socialising in her home.
Dutracy left the property at around 8.30pm, and made an inappropriate sexual remark about the woman to her young baby.
The woman fell asleep watching television. When she woke, she found that Dutracy was carrying out a sex act on her.
She ordered him out of the house and as Dutracy fell to the floor she noticed that his trousers were unfastened and pulled down. The woman told Dutracy to leave but did not contact police as she thought no one would believe her.
Four days later, Dutracy contacted the woman to apologise but she told him it was not good enough and convinced him to hand himself into the police.
Defending Ian Flynn said that his client was still of the opinion that there had been an “invited sexual connection” earlier that day.
However, Sheriff Alastair Brown said that this was at odds with police statements given by both the accused and the complainer.
Sentencing Dutracy to 18 months imprisonment, Sheriff Brown said: “It is quite clear that when a woman is sleeping she cannot give consent.
“It is also quite clear that the woman had refused consent to any other sexual contact earlier in the day.
“If it is the case that there has been some kind of sexual agreement earlier that day, that does not carry on later. Consent cannot be given in the past then assumed to still be valid. Consent is an ongoing condition of agreement and a person sleeping cannot give consent.
“You entered this woman’s house without consent and not only violated her sexually, you also violated the privacy of her home.”
Dutracy was also put on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
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