A sleeping woman who was among the guests at a drink-fuelled social gathering suddenly woke up in horror to discover that a sneaky sexual predator had quietly pulled down her clothes and was intimately touching her.
She did not know what to do and “froze” because of the sheer shock of what was happening. She later “could not cope with the flashbacks” that she suffered from the upsetting incident and she had been left “stressed out” from the trauma of it, Hull Crown Court heard.
Carl Byfield, 40, of Haisthorpe, near Bridlington, denied an offence of sexual assault but he was convicted by a jury after a trial by a majority of 10 to two. He admitted separate offences of dangerous driving and assaulting a man, causing actual bodily harm, on January 6, 2021.
Stephen Robinson, prosecuting, said that the sexual assault happened following a social gathering where Byfield and other people who were there had been drinking. It had been suggested that Byfield had also taken drugs but he denied this.
The prosecution claimed during the trial that Byfield intimately touched the woman and pulled down her leggings and underwear. She woke up at about 1.30am to find his hand on her legs and him “groping” her chest.
The woman said: “I just lay there pretending to be asleep. I froze. I didn’t know what to think. I don’t know why I didn’t jump up. I saw him when I opened my eyes.”
When the woman realised what was going on, she pulled her leggings up quickly. “Byfield jumped up and headed out of the room,” said Mr Robinson.
The woman told the court in a statement that she ended up in hospital because she “could not cope with the flashbacks” of the incident. “I now find it very difficult to trust men,” she said. The court process left her “stressed out” but she was grateful that Byfield had been convicted by the jury.
Judge Alexander Menary said that Byfield claimed that he went over to the woman to check that she was all right because she had been drinking a lot. Byfield was asked during his defence evidence: “Did you touch her in a sexual way?” He replied: “No.” He denied that he had taken drugs at the time.
Byfield was asked: “Did you try it on with her?” He claimed: “I didn’t grope her. I woke her up to make sure she was okay after drinking a lot. I was seeing if she was all right. My hand only touched her once.”
Mr Robinson said that the dangerous driving and assault incidents happened when Byfield deliberately drove at a man who was riding a bicycle along Brett Street, Bridlington. He had previously sent threatening messages to him over bad blood between them over an earlier incident and he told the man: “I’m coming for you.”
Byfield mounted a pavement and knocked him off the bicycle. He ran up the street and chased the man before catching up with him and taking hold of the hood of his coat. The man slipped and Byfield dragged him to the ground and “booted him” several times before walking off. The victim suffered cuts, bruises, a headache and pains to his left thumb from being knocked off his bicycle by the car.
Leila Taleb, mitigating, said that Byfield had never committed sexual or violent offences before. “He is not the sort of person who normally finds himself in the shadow of a court door,” said Miss Taleb.
“He acted out of character. It was an opportunistic offence fuelled by alcohol and/or drugs. These matters took place a long time ago.” The delay had caused everyone a “great deal of stress”.
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Byfield acted foolishly during the dangerous driving incident after “seeing red” because of an earlier incident when there were “strong emotions” at the time. “The defendant has stayed out of trouble and not committed any further offences since these matters took place some time ago,” said Miss Taleb.
Father-of-two Byfield had a conviction for careless driving in 2006. He worked as an engineer and he had reduced his drinking – the factor which caused him to “act without inhibition” during the sexual assault.
Byfield, who had been on bail, was jailed for two years and eight months. He must register as a sex offender for 10 years and he was given a 10-year restraining order. He was banned from driving for two years and he will have to take an extended retest before he can drive legally again.