Festival-goer groped policewoman after being taken to KGH

Sam Andrews, 22, was handcuffed by police after attending dance music festival Illusive at Deene Park near Corby on September 11 this year.

Yesterday (Wednesday) Wellingborough Magistrates Court heard how Andrews, who pleaded guilty to sexual assault at an earlier hearing, was taken to KGH as they suspected he had taken drugs.

When Andrews arrived at the hospital he began making a series of lewd and vulgar comments.

In a 10-minute video played before the court, Andrews - who shook his head as he watched the clip - could be heard asking for his handcuffs to be taken off on about 100 occasions.

Police, who captured the incident on bodycam, refused and told him he was upsetting patients and could not be trusted with his handcuffs off.

But Andrews persisted, claiming the handcuffs were hurting him and continuing to make sexual remarks.

Police then took him to the reception desk where a staff member began booking him in as his handcuffs were removed.

Andrews looked at the female police officer and said “you want to have sex with me”, to which she replied that she didn’t.

But he then lunged over the desk and groped her before being restrained by police officers.

Prosecuting, Jerena Tomaszewska said the victim felt ‘disgusted’.

She said: “She felt violated and disgusted that he could do that in a public place.”

The officer also tore a muscle in her arm as she reacted to the incident.

Mitigating, Mr Kalari said the act was completely out of character.

He said: “It is fair to say that Andrews is extremely remorseful for the incident.

“This is extremely out of character, he does not recollect a lot of it as he was intoxicated at the time.”

Andrews, of Stonesfield in Oxfordshire, was given a three-month electronic curfew and ordered to pay his victim £200 in compensation.

He must also pay costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £85.

Sentencing, chairman of the bench Ian Barratt said: “What were you doing?

“It’s the end of a great festival weekend and it ended up like that.

“In many ways it was appalling.

“You should be acting in a responsible way and that includes what goes down your throat.

“We think it is our public duty to protect the police and their patience, from what we saw in the video, was remarkable.”