‘You have no right to touch a woman’
JUST a few days after police launched a campaign to promote women being allowed to feel safe on a night out, one woman was indecently assaulted in a Town nightclub.
Towards the end of the night at Folies, the victim was standing in the top bar with friends when Tomas Vaitkevicius, 33, who lived in Folkestone and was working in the island as a building site manager, approached, put his hand up her skirt and reached between her legs, before slapping her bottom as he laughed.
A male friend of the victim grabbed his shirt and punched him before door staff intervened. Vaitkevicius was arrested soon afterwards.
The victim told police that she had not felt able to go to Town since the incident in early December. She had suffered from anxiety ever since, and was disappointed that some people had seemed more interested in knowing what she had been wearing and how much she had drunk that night than why she had been violated. She said every woman would appreciate how devastating such an assault could be.
Judge Gary Perry insisted that the victim statement was read in the Magistrate’s Court, although it had already been translated to the defendant.
‘I did it because it explains the effect that this sort of behaviour can have more intensely than my words could ever do,’ he said.
The problem seemed to be that some men always seemed to recognise that this sort of behaviour was wrong only immediately after behaving in this way.
‘Identifying a woman as something that a man has some sort of right to touch or treat how he pleases is totally unacceptable and the court will always treat it seriously,’ he said.
Advocate David Domaille said his client, who pleaded guilty, was ashamed and took full responsibility for what had happened.
He fully understood that every woman or girl in society had a right to feel safe. He had been very drunk on the night but had not drunk since and did not intend to drink alcohol again.
Judge Perry noted a positive probation report and believed the defendant’s remorse was genuine.
Sentencing powers were limited as the defendant lived in the UK and a community service order was not workable.
A prison sentence of three months suspended for two years was imposed, and Vaitkevicius must pay £650 compensation to his victim.
As a registered sex-offender he would be subject to notification requirements for five years.
The punishment, the judge said, could never reflect the effects of the crime on the victim.
