Dylan Jenkins, 27, of Le Grand Val, Alderney, admitted the offence. The court was told how the incident occurred in The Chez Bar in Victoria Street at about 11pm in December last year.
On entering the bar, the defendant greeted a woman that he knew in a very friendly fashion. The victim was standing next to her.
Jenkins then leant over the victim’s shoulder’s before touching one of her breasts. She objected immediately and Jenkins left the bar. The incident was captured on CCTV. In interview, Jenkins said he did not know the victim well and was ashamed at what he had done. He had started drinking at 4.30pm that day and had consumed a lot of lager.
Defending, Advocate Chris Green said this had been a single touch to one of the woman’s breasts over her clothing.
His client had consistently accepted his responsibly for the one act and had expressed remorse for it. He had written a letter of apology to the woman which he had not yet been able to have passed to her because of a bail condition. In terms of sexual offending, this had been at the lower end of the scale.
Lt-Bailiff Graeme McKerrell said that whatever relationship the defendant had with the first woman and how he had chosen to greet her was irrelevant to how he had approached the victim.
The defence contended that this was at the lower end of the scale, but in the context of women being touched this way in pubs and bars it was at the higher end, he said.
People had to be punished not just in the context of what they had done, but in order to deter others from doing the same, and this had been ‘the most blatant and overt act of touching’, he said.
Mr McKerrell said that the sentence would be reduced due to Jenkins’ personal circumstances to six weeks in prison. He was made subject to notification requirements for the next two years and six months.