Pryzm Leeds: Man who smacked woman’s bottom in nightclub admits sexual assault charge

Thomas O’Neill was told his behaviour “belonged to a previous age” after walking past the female in Pryzm and tapping her backside on the evening of June 19.

Leeds Crown Court was told that the horrified woman and her friends made the staff aware, O’Neill was apprehended and the police were called to the Woodhouse Lane venue.

Prosecutor Katherine Robinson said the 22-year-old admitted what he had done and told police that he thought she was an former partner of his.

He then told police he had been in the city centre club “to get p***y”. O’Neill, of Lichfield Road, Wheatley, Doncaster, has one previous conviction for criminal damage last year for which he received a 12-month conditional discharge. He admitted a charge of sexual assault. The offence put him in breach of the existing conditional discharge. Mitigating, Anthony Dunne told the court that O’Neill was genuinely remorseful for his actions.

He added: “Behaviour of this kind, which has occurred in nightclubs for many years, has for a long time been overlooked and not been reported.

"It may not be viewed as serious as it should be viewed. He is only 22 and is immature. He has only really worked since he left school. He lives mainly at home with his mum and spends most of his time caring for his younger siblings. He says this has been a proper lesson for him, it has opened his eyes to the consequences to this sort of behaviour.”

The judge, Recorder David Gordon told O’Neill: “This attitude belongs to a previous age. You are genuinely sorry now for what you did. You smacked her on the bottom over her clothing. She was a stranger to you and it is a sexual assault, but I accept it’s the bottom of the scale in terms of seriousness. I’m not going to deprive you of your liberty, that would not be right.”

He gave O’Neill a 12-month community order and 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days.