Description
A sex offender has been banned from staying in any hotel, guesthouse, or other paid accommodation for 10 years unless he gives police 48 hours’ notice.
Brett Whittaker’s sexual crimes in a North Yorkshire hotel left a staff member needing counselling, York Crown Court heard.
The employee was addressing Whittaker’s complaint about his room being too hot when the 44-year-old trapped him inside and sexually assaulted him in four ways.
In a personal statement, the employee said the attacks deeply affected him, requiring counselling and medical help, and forced him to leave his job. “I wish Brett Whittaker hadn’t trapped me in a room, assaulted me and caused me anxiety,” he stated. “It is a horrible memory to live with.”
Whittaker also behaved sexually toward a woman vaping at the hotel.
To protect hotel staff and the public, Judge Simon Hickey imposed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order prohibiting unnotified stays in such accommodations.
Jailing Whittaker for 18 months, the judge said: “You have a propensity to assault not just young females but also young males.” Regarding the employee assault, he added: “He was trapped in a room by you (who was) much bigger, much stronger and in drink.”
Defence barrister Giles Grant noted Whittaker’s labourer work often takes him across the country.
Whittaker was placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years, requiring him to notify police of his address and other conditions.
The employee testified after Whittaker, of no fixed address, denied four sexual assault charges. A York jury convicted him unanimously in under two hours on “overwhelming evidence,” including his DNA from kissing the victim.
The jury knew of Whittaker’s two prior sexual assault convictions but not his conviction for trying to cause a child to watch a sexual act.
Post-verdict, Mr. Grant said the four assaults were part of one continuous event involving alcohol. Whittaker has an ongoing alcohol issue but has abstained since his release; he was remanded for two months after arrest earlier this year.