A CONVICTED rapist attacked a teenager in Carlisle city centre because he had accidentally bumped into a woman while walking past her.

In spite of the teenager immediately apologising to the woman, 35-year-old Billy Rutter began yelling at him and accusing him of “touching the woman’s bottom" before forcefully pushing him.

The victim fell to the ground, breaking his arm.

At one point while he was yelling at the teenager, Rutter told him: “We don’t do things like that down our end.”

Rutter, who hails from Liverpool and was locked up in 2005 for raping a schoolgirl, pleaded guilty to causing his victim in Carlisle grievous bodily harm. Prosecutor Gerard Rogerson described what happened.

The victim was celebrating his birthday with his family in Carlisle on September 3, initially being with his family, though they went home shortly before midnight.

As the teenager walked along Botchergate, he passed a group of three females and two males and accidentally bumped into one of the women.

“As he did so,” said Mr Rogerson, “he immediately apologised and continued walking. However, Mr Rutter, who was present as part of that group, challenged him and shouted to him that he had just touched her [bottom].

“It appears that the woman gave that information to Mr Rutter but she felt it was accidental.”

Despite this, Rutter kept shouting. The teenager said the defendant was screaming in is face aggressively, pressings his forehead up against his. “I didn’t retaliate in any way at all,” said the teenager.

“I explained it was an accident but he clearly wasn’t listening.

“He just kept shouting.

“I said to him: ‘If you are going to do something just do it.” Though the teenager said he was headbutted and kicked while on the ground, CCTV of the incident did not show this. He was, however, forcibly “shoved,” said Mr Rogerson.

The victim then immediately felt “overwhelming pain” in his right arm and knew that his arm was broken.

The teenager then approached a door supervisor he knew and told him that Rutter had "snapped his arm."

The doorman drove the teenager to hospital.

Doctors confirmed that two bones in the teenager’s forearm were broken and he needed surgery to repair the injury. He also suffered bruising to his eye.

In a statement, he accepted he was “a bit drunk” but said he was of sound mind.

In a victim statement, the teenager said he had spent several days in hospital and was forced to move back in with his mother because he needed help with simple every day tasks.

“I have been in constant pain,” he said, and this meant he had struggled to sleep. He said: “It’s had a further knock-on effect on my daily life. I’ve been constantly tired.”

The teenager said he loved his job, which was physically demanding, but he had been unable to work since being assaulted.

Since the incident, he had been told the defendant’s name and made aware that he is a “dangerous person,” he said.

“I’d been celebrating my birthday and up to the point of the assault I was having such a good night and was in really good spirits.”

He said he no longer felt like going out in Carlisle because he does not feel safe. “I would not be able to relax.”

Doctors had told him it could take up to six months for his arm to heal. “I just want to get back to normal,” he added. The victim's mother posted an appeal for witnesses on Facebook.

Mark Shepherd, defending, said the case had come to court so quickly because Rutter, aware that he was wanted by the police, handed himself in. He also confirmed that the man seen pushing the teenager in CCTV images was him

"He's clearly pushed him to the ground with some force," said Mr Shepherd, adding that Rutter had "done the right thing" and admitted his guilt. The defendant's record includes dozens of offences dating back to 1999.

Recorder Julian Shaw jailed Rutter for six months.