Eric Smith 38

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A MAN who invaded a womans home at night and threatened to rape her has been jailed.

She woke in the early hours to find Eric Bristow Smith standing by her bed, said Tony Dunne, prosecuting.

He put a hand over her mouth and said: You want raping, you whore.

He appeared to be drunk or high on drugs.

He grabbed her twice sexually and tried to expose her legs, but she fought him off and fled from her home, the court heard.

In a personal statement to the court, she said she had had to move address and was now on medication for depression.

I cannot understand why he did it to me or why it happened, she wrote.

Smith, 37, of Outgang Lane Caravan Site, east York, pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual assault.

He was jailed for 27 months at York Crown Court and will have to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

Mr Dunne said Smith got into the womans York home through an unlocked door.

When she realised he was there, she told him to get out, but he sexually assaulted her.

She told police she was struggling for breath and panicking.

The incident lasted 10 minutes, said Mr Dunne. The defendant was drunk or had taken drugs.

Smith was arrested the same day and told police that he had been in the womans home, but denied sexually assaulting her.

He said he couldnt remember what had happened because he had been intoxicated.

For Smith, Caroline Abraham said he had not offended in any way since the incident some months ago.

There is a different side to the defendants personality, she said.

He had major family commitments and responsibilities including to his mother who had ill-health.

In the months leading up to the incident, his father-in-law had died of Covid and another family member was also ill with the illness, the court was told.

He resorted to drinking as a means of coping, Ms Abraham said.

Since the offences, with support from his family, he had stopped misusing alcohol.

Ms Abraham said there had been a significant delay before Smith had been prosecuted.