An ‘outrageously drunk’ blind pervert put his hand down a young woman’s top when she came to his assistance when he fell to the ground.

Kevin Masters spoke to the teenager outside his home and asked her to go to the shop for him before taking advantage of the situation and trying to molest her.

The 60-year-old maintained he was so drunk that he had no recollection of the events but accepted that his victim was telling the truth when she said he had groped her.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the defendant had previous convictions for sexual assault and had recently come off the sex offenders’ register after serving a ten-year notification order.

Nigel Soppitt, prosecuting, said: “They sat him on the sofa. He was holding on to the young woman, hugging her and pulling her face towards him. He told her "the £20 was for her" and pulled her face towards him again so they were "nose to nose, face to face".”

The lawyer said the defendant then put his arm around her collar before reaching down her shirt - the woman believed he was trying to reach her breast.

The victim jumped away from him, left and called her sister before ringing the police.

In a victim impact statement, the woman said she was fearful to leave her flat and no longer felt safe.

She said: “I thought I was helping someone out. I have had my trust broken by someone who I thought needed my help.”

The court heard how Masters had two previous convictions for sex offences dating back to 1992 and 2011.

Masters, of Stewarts Road, Stockton, pleaded guilty to sexual assault on a female following the incident outside his former home on October 2 last year.

Michele Turner, mitigating, told the court that her client had lost his sight over the course of a week more than a decade ago.

She said: “He was intoxicated to an outrageous level and he has no recollection of what happened that evening or how he ended up outside his flat.”

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Judge Timothy Stead sentenced Masters to eight months in custody suspended for two years.

He added: “You know and acknowledge, by virtue of your guilty plea, that what you did was disgraceful and inexcusable.

“The extent of your drunkenness, which was considerable, resulted in what you did to someone who wanted to help and that is inexcusable.”

He was also told that he must carry out 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days and will be made subject to a restraining order and placed on the sex offenders' register for the next 10 years.