A JUDGE told a brutal sex offender who left his victim with catastrophic, life-changing injuries that he had added to her anxiety by refusing to explain his actions.

Ian Matthew Suddes, of Millers Hill Lane, Consett, was sentenced to 90 months imprisonment and placed on the Sex Offenders Registration indefinitely, at Durham Crown Court on Friday.

The 52-year-old farmer had pleaded guilty to one charge of assault by penetration in March, 2019, at an earlier hearing.

But he has repeatedly failed to explain how the woman was so badly hurt when she went back to his house after they were out drinking together, and she passed out.

Judge Ray Singh told Suddes he had assaulted the woman when she was “extremely vulnerable” because she was heavily intoxicated.

He said: “Whatever happened she has no recollection and that, to a large extent, is still troubling her.

“You must know what happened, you must know how it is you caused these quite catastrophic injuries to her.

“For whatever reason you have been unable or unwilling to let anybody know.

“That is causing her a great deal of anxiety.”

The court heard that Suddes had been out with the woman prior to the assault and the pair had returned to his home.

The following morning another person living in the house found her struggling to breath on the floor.

He placed her in the recovery position and called Suddes, who later took her home.

She was subsequently taken to hospital by other people and was found to have significant internal injuries, bruising and grazes but was unable to recollect how she had sustained them.

Medical experts said she would have been heavily intoxicated at the time of attack, which is why she was not awoken by the pain.

The victim could not work for several months, had to undergo surgery and could still require further operations.

Judge Singh told Suddes: “The following morning it would have been abundantly clear to you, I have no doubt, that she was significantly hurt at your house.

“We may never know how she suffered those horrific injuries.

“What did you do? Lent her some of your clothes, took her in your car and dropped her off, wholly unconcerned about the state she was in.

“What is clear is that, during the course of than night, you must have violently assaulted her sexually - of that there can be no doubt, the injuries speak for themselves.

“She subsequently had to undergo surgical intervention, the doctors describe it as major surgical treatment.

“Those are life-changing injuries caused to her.

“You know the effect you have had upon this lady.

“Her self-confidence and mental health have become worse.”

David Callan, mitigating, said Suddes – who helped run a family farm and had a part time job at Hexham Mart – had two dissimilar previous convictions for drink-driving offences in 2001 and 2011.

Mr Callan said: “This offence is completely out of character, the impression one gets is of a man who behaves in a gentlemanly way towards women before this incident.

“Everyone is at a loss, including himself, to understand how he behaved on this particular evening.

“The defendant is very much a broken man and does express sympathy and remorse to the complainant in this case.”

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