Locations
HMP Whatton, Nottinghamshire
Description
A former support worker has been branded a dangerous offender after sexually assaulting a man by rubbing him intimately and penetrating him from behind without consent.
The assault occurred around a decade ago at Lee O'Brien's former home in the Wrexham area. O'Brien, 52, is already serving a prison sentence in England for sex offences against another victim.
At Mold Crown Court today, he admitted assault by penetration and was sentenced to nine years, with five and a half years in custody.
Judge Rhys Rowlands heard the victim, who cannot be named, arrived expecting others but found only O'Brien. Prosecutor John Wyn Williams said they sat on a sofa, where O'Brien tried to kiss him; the victim pulled away, but O'Brien, "bigger and stronger," got on top.
O'Brien rubbed him intimately over clothes, removed his trousers, and penetrated him, causing a "burning sensation in his anus as if he needed to go to the lavatory." The victim couldn't see what it was—"it could have been a finger or it could have been an object," Mr. Wyn Williams said. O'Brien suddenly stopped, smiling. No consent was given.
Years later, work training "triggered a reaction," leading the victim to report O'Brien to police on June 22, 2023. O'Brien, interviewed September 7, 2023, claimed the behavior was "consensual" and "mutual" with no sex.
In a court statement, the victim said before the incident, "I was living my best life. The world was my oyster." Afterward, he became socially isolated, distrustful, suffered nightmares, and needed counseling. He prepared for trial but O'Brien's guilty plea denied him that: "You have taken away my voice by taking away 'my' trial." Overall: "You made me feel dirty and disgusting and I will never be able to get over this fact."
Defense barrister Matthew Dunford noted the guilty plea spared cross-examination, both had been drinking without O'Brien "plying" the victim as in other cases, and O'Brien is genuinely remorseful.
The judge cited the assault's "severe psychological effect" on the victim. As a dangerous offender at HMP Whatton, Nottinghamshire, O'Brien must serve two-thirds of the custodial term, followed by three and a half years on licence "to protect members of the public."
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