Locations
Rutland Avenue, Hawtonville, Newark, NG24
Description
A man has been jailed after sexually assaulting three women at a party at his family home.
Matthew Cope, of Rutland Avenue, Newark, Nottinghamshire, admitted three counts of sexual assault.
Nottinghamshire Police said the 40-year-old drunkenly groped three women during the birthday celebrations.
Cope was given an 18-month prison sentence at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday and made subject to a four-year restraining order.
Nottinghamshire Police said Cope was already drunk when he joined his partner at a birthday gathering at a pub in Newark.
After inviting everyone back to his house afterwards, he carried on drinking heavily and started making sexual advances on a number of women in the presence of his partner and other family members, officers added.
The force said Cope failed to stop even when others intervened and also put one of his victims in a headlock when she tried to fight him off.
Police were called to the house in Rutland Avenue, Newark, and arrested Cope after finding him drunkenly slumped over in his kitchen in the early hours of 13 October 2019.
Ahead of sentencing, a victim impact statement was read out from one of the women, who said that the experience had made her "feel physically sick".
PC Vicky Buttery, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: "Cope's actions that night were completely unacceptable and have quite rightly landed him with a prison sentence.
"While he may have been extremely drunk when he carried out these lewd acts, this should not be used as an excuse on his behalf, as his actions were inexcusable."