A MAN who used a sex toy on a woman as she lay asleep has been sentenced to two years in prison.

Paul Brinkworth, 46, of North Road, Darlington, pleaded not guilty at Durham Crown Court to sexual assault, but was convicted following a trial at an earlier hearing.

Brinkworth subjected her to a campaign of harassment, including sending her a video of them engaged in sexual activity, which she was unaware he had recorded.

In a victim impact statement, the woman said she had been forced to move out of her home out of fear that he may be able to trace her.

"What do I have to do to get this man out of my life," she said. "Because he has sent a video to me and I am worried he had done this more and there may be pictures and maybe videos on porn sites in the internet.

"He abused my trust in him."

Passing sentence, Recorder Euan Duff told Brinkworth that he regarded the fact he had used a sex toy on his victim while she was asleep in bed, knowing she didn't like it, as an aggravating feature.

He added: "You cannot accept your guilt in the matter or that you are in the wrong.

"As shown in your continued attitude, I do consider you constitute a danger to the victim."

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said Brinkworth, who had no previous convictions, had met the woman on the internet.

On the weekend of July 1 to 3 last year they were in a hotel in Newcastle where cocaine and sex toys were present.

She asked him not to use a sex toy on her and later fell asleep. But at 5am she woke to find him using it on her and pushed him off.

The couple carried on with the day and that evening had a confrontation over the matter in a restaurant, where she accused him of sexually abusing her.

Brinkworth continued to harass her and the woman obtained a restraining order, which he breached leading to a 52-week sentence.

Robert Mochrie, mitigating, said: “When she awoke and told him to desist he did so immediately.”

Brinkworth, who appeared via a video link, was placed on sex offenders’ register for seven years and was made subject of an indefinite restraining order forbidding him from making any contact with the victim.