Sex-assault victim developed eating disorder and left feeling ‘dirty and subhuman’ over Leeds attack

The 24-year-old said she was so badly affected, and blamed by some for the attack, that she also developed an eating disorder which “distracted” her from her experience.

She had awoken to find Samuel Ian Robinson with his hand inside her underwear after a night out in 2018. Robinson denied the offence despite his DNA being found on the victim’s genital area, Leeds Crown Court was told this week.

Prosecutor Matthew Bean said the woman had been at an event held at the Queen’s Hotel in Leeds city centre and had then caught a taxi with friends to a house in Headingley in the early hours.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted being heavily intoxicated and was later sick. Robinson was at the house and she heard him tell her friends to put her in the recovery position.

She woke the next morning on the sofa of the defendant’s home, still dressed, and found him sexually touching her. In shock, she left and later reported the incident. During his interview with the police, he denied the offence. He was found guilty after a trial in March of this year.

In a victim impact statement read out to the court, the woman said the assault had a “massive impact” on her. She added: “I have very low self esteem and have lost all of my confidence. I find it hard to trust people, particularly men.

"I have developed issues with food which I never had before. I sometimes starve myself because being hungry is a distraction from reality. The hunger is easier to deal with than what is going on in my life.

"Not eating is a way of coping with the trauma of what happened to me. The crime has made me feeling subhuman. It has left me feeling dirty and worthless.”

She also said that she has, at times, felt like a criminal and the “one at fault”.

Robinson, of Charlton Place, Newbury, Berkshire has no previous convictions, had been at university at the time and worked as a trainer for the Navy cadets.

Mitigating on his behalf, Andrew Stranex said the delay in bringing the matter to court was partly due to a data breach which involved Robinson’s DNA sample, to which he had been complicit in supplying.

He said that Robinson, now 29, has no other convictions and argued this incident was a “one-off”. Mr Stranex said Robinson was now married with a child, and another on the way.

He added: “His primary focus in his life is to care for his wife and child and his child to be. He will not be before these courts again.”

Judge Rodney Jameson KC told Robinson: “It’s a great shame that you were not able to accept the evidence in this case. The jury found it compelling that you behaved in the way the victim described.”

He said he was persuaded to suspend his sentence, giving him 18 months’ jail, suspended for 18 months. He also gave him 100 hours of unpaid work, and was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.