A WOMAN described feeling as if she had been “savaged by a wild dog”, after suffering a prolonged bite to her lip, a court heard.

Andrew Hawkey refused to release his grip as he lay over the screaming victim, pinning her down, ignoring her desperate pleas for him to end the attack.

Durham Crown Court heard that she became increasingly panic-stricken, fearing she was going to be raped.

Her ordeal only ended when, with blood pouring from her mouth, she managed to finally turn her head and push him off, before grabbing her phone, locking herself in a room and ringing police.

Paul Cleasby, prosecuting, said when he was arrested and taken to the police station Hawkey claimed to have no recollection of the incident, due to, “a medical episode preventing him remembering what happened.”

Mr Cleasby said the incident, last June, began when the women rebuffed Hawkey’s efforts to kiss her, so he began “nipping” her lip with his teeth, before fully gripping it, with increasing force.

The victim suffered several injuries to her lower lip, with three areas of broken skin, bite marks to the side of her neck, plus bruising which she appeared to have sustained during the incident, but which she could not recall receiving due to the pain from her mouth.

Quoting from her victim statement, Mr Cleasby told the court that, more than nine months after the incident, she said her injuries may have healed, but the emotional scars have not left her and she has undergone counselling.

She described her injuries making her look as if she had been, “savaged by a wild dog”.

Forty-six-year-old Hawkey, of Roseberry Crescent, Crook, admitted a single count of sexual assault.

Jonathan Walker, in mitigation, said the defendant has committed no previous offences and has shown “palpable remorse”.

Mr Walker, who presented character testimonials on Hawkey’s behalf to the court, said: “It has to be accepted it was an ugly incident, an attack on a vulnerable victim.

“Although he was said to be suffering amnesia over the incident there was never any question he hadn’t done it.

“He’s clearly been an industrious individual who has suffered a down-turn in his life.

“It isn’t a man hard-wired to violence or sexual deviancy in the past. It was wholly out of character.”

Jailing him for a year and eight months, Judge Christopher Prince told Hawkey he had left his victim “terrified”, suffering “extreme pain” to such an extent he could not accede to Mr Walker’s request to suspend the sentence.

Hawkey will also be subject to registration as a sex offender for ten years.