August 8, 2017 3.37 pm This story is over 79 months old

Man filmed himself fondling woman’s breast and squeezing her nipple while she was asleep

He will now spend time behind bars.
Ashley Bray has been jailed. Photo: Lincolnshire Police

A Spalding man who sexually assaulted a woman while she lay asleep has been jailed for two years and four months.

Ashley Bray, 27, fondled the woman’s breast and touched her nipple after she fell asleep on a sofa, a court was told.

Bray denied his motive was sexual but was convicted of the assault by a jury at Lincoln Crown Court.

The jury also convicted Bray of a second charge under the Harassment Act.

Passing sentence Judge Michael Heath told Bray: “That sexual assault was a nasty and despicable act on a woman sound asleep.”

The court heard Bray also filmed the sexual assault on a mobile phone.

Judge Heath told him: “First of all you invaded her privacy by looking through her mobile phone.

“Then at 3.19am as she lay asleep and wholly oblivious to what you were doing you groped and fondled her breast, and squeezed her nipple.”

The judge added: “You denied to the jury it was sexual, it obviously was.”

Bray, of Green Lane, Spalding, denied the sexual assault on February 14, 2016, and a second charge of harassment.

He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years and made the subject of a restraining order which prevents him from contacting his victim.

Alison Summers, mitigating, told the court Bray had no previous convictions of a sexual nature and had never been to prison before.

Miss Summers said: “The first few months of prison for someone who has never been before are often the hardest.”