James Owen 28

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A perverted chef who sexually assaulted a semi-conscious student on Concert Square has been jailed again after groping a girl on a train.

James Owen, who has a shocking record for sex offences, drunkenly attacked the teenager as she travelled on the service with a friend.

Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday afternoon, Wednesday, that the 17-year-old victim was on a train in the Wirral area in June 2021 when the stranger began talking to her. David Polglase, prosecuting, described how the 27-year-old then sexually assaulted her as she got up to leave at her stop.

Owen, of Buckingham Road in Wallasey, was arrested the same evening. He has a total of 37 previous convictions for 58 offences including for "fare dodging" on railways, harassment and violent crimes.

The pervert was convicted of indecent exposure in 2015, receiving a suspended prison sentence. Owen was then locked up for 12 months for sexual assault in 2018.

The ECHO previously reported how he preyed on a drunk and defenceless student who had been separated from her friends after a night out in Liverpool city centre in May of the same year. The young woman was unable to stand when he approached and tried to talk to her, ruffled her hair then walked off towards Concert Square.

But Owen, then of Sussex Road in Southport, returned and was shown on CCTV footage standing "uncomfortably close" to the complainant before "tampering" with her handbag and spilling its contents. She held onto a window to try and stay upright before he kissed her, despite the fact that her eyes were closed.

The sex offender went on to rifle through her bag, stealing cigarettes and a lighter. Owen - who was then homeless but working as a chef -subsequently put his hand on her leg and moved it up her thigh, before he was joined by a second man who pinched her mobile phone.

An unknown woman also stole an item from the victim's handbag before passersby intervened. The defendant subsequently received a 17-week imprisonment suspended for two years in April 2021 for failing to comply with notification requirements and battery.

Paul Wood, defending, told the court that his client had "expressed remorse and been abstinent from alcohol". He added: "Very importantly, he has showed insight into what he has done.

"He does want to change his way. He has lived somewhat of a chaotic life."

Owen admitted sexual assault shortly before he was due to stand trial, as well as a further charge of failing to comply with notification requirements after neglecting to inform the police of a change of address. He was jailed for two years and told to sign the sex offenders' register for a further 10 years, as well as being handed an indefinite restraining order.

Sentencing, Judge David Hale said: "You didn't know her from Adam, but you struck up a conversation. When she gets up to leave, you stuck your hand out and groped her in the crotch without any thought for the consequences.

"She has been extremely badly affected by it. You have troubling previous convictions, some of them trivial and some of them not - including a previous sexual assault.

"This took place on a train when people were about. Despite that, you felt able to do this."