A DRUNK Carlisle hotel guest who groped an 18-year-old receptionist after clambering over a counter to reach her has been put on the Sex Offender Register.

Bradley Wright, 36, was staying at the hotel with his partner when his lewd behaviour led to him being arrested and charged with a sexual offence, Carlisle’s Rickergate court heard. He admitted sexual assault.

Prosecutor George Shelley showed the court CCTV footage of the incident on August 27, showing how the receptionist at the Carlisle hotel sitting at her desk behind a counter, which was also equipped with plastic covid screens.

The receptionist was working alone at her desk when Wright – looking unusually animated – approached her and began chatting.

“He was drunk, and making suggestive comments towards her,” said Mr Shelley. The CCTV footage captured the moments when Wright clambered over the counter, past the Perspex screens, and tried to embrace the teenager.

He touched her hip and right thigh as he pinned her to her chair and kissed her on the face, said Mr Shelley. The receptionist was seen trying to push Wright away and then ordering him to leave her desk area. 

“She had booked the defendant and his partner into a room the previous day,” said Mr Shelley. “She reported the incident to her manager who, having viewed the CCTV footage, contacted the police.”

When police later arrested Wright and put him into a van ready for the journey to the police station, he became aggressive, threatening to urinate in it. He then did so. “The vehicle could not then be used until it had been cleaned.”

The defendant, who also admitted causing criminal damage to a police vehicle, had a record which consisted of 30 previous offences, including two offences against the person and two against property. 

The court was then given a summary of a statement made by the 18-year-old victim after she was sexually assaulted. She said that she already suffered from anxiety, and what happened had heightened this.

She had been unable to sleep properly, and felt physical symptoms linked to increased anxiety, including her legs shaking and her chest tightening. “I have not returned to work because I can’t face it,” she said.

Jeff Smith, defending, said Wright had come to Carlisle for a break with his partner, who was in court to support him. Mr Smith said: “He did what he knows he should not have done: he had drunk vodka – I imagine a significant amount of vodka.

“Regarding what you have just seen {the CCTV], Mr Wright can’t recall any of it in detail. Seeing that, I imagine, creates in him a great deal of disgust. I imagine his partner at the back of court feels similarly.

“He meant no harm. But he was drunk – very drunk.”

Mr Smith said Wright, of Boundary Walk, Liverpool, recently returned to work as a scaffolder and his life was taking on a form that was attractive to him. "But he is disgusted with his behaviour,” added the lawyer. 

Magistrates noted that the defendant committed the offence while he was drunk and that he had clambered over the desk past covid screens to assault the teenager. They imposed a 12-month community order, with 200 hours unpaid work.

Wright must pay his victim £500 compensation, as well as £85 costs and a £114 victim surcharge. For the criminal damage offence, he was told to payn£150 compensation to Cumbria Police.

Because he is now convicted of a sex offence and serving a 12-month community order, Wright will be on the Sex Offender Register for five years, said magistrates. He must report to his local police station within three days and provide his personal details.

The defendant was told he can settle his £749 debt to the court at a rate of £100 per month.