A finance company boss convicted of a sex attack o
A finance company boss convicted of a sex attack on a colleague faces a four-week wait to be sentenced – after being put on trial THREE times for the offence.
Stephen Smith, 38, was accused of raping one workmate and molesting another just days later.
He went through three trials when two were scrapped for administrative reasons, before being cleared of the rape allegation.
Smith was found guilty of indecent assault on the second woman – which involved touching her breasts over her clothing after she went to his hotel room – and sentence was adjourned for a month.
Today (THURS), it was postponed for yet another four weeks because pre-sentence reports have still not been drawn up.
And a judge was so concerned about the delays that he has promised to come to court especially for the case next month, even though he is due to be elsewhere until mid-November.
Judge David Martineau said: ‘I am sure the defendant is anxious to be sentenced as soon as possible.
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Smith pounced on the 31-year-old woman on May 7 last year, shortly after being promoted to branch manager of Direct Auto in Wakefield, West Yorks.
He was on several days attachment to an office in Ealing, west London, when he went for a drink with the woman at the Jarvis International Hotel.
After a while, they went upstairs to Smith’s room because she wanted to use his phone to call a friend in Australia.
Once there, Smith began making sexual advances towards her, but she rejected him.
As the woman tried to leave the room, Smith groped her.
She only got away after asking for a cup of coffee and calling reception while he was filling the kettle in the en suite.
Smith was cleared of raping another colleague in an attack just days before the indecent assault.
A 35-year-old workmate claimed he had raped her while they were on a course together at the Brambletye Hotel in Forest Road near East Grinstead, East Sussex.
She said she fell pregnant after Smith forced himself on her when she joined him for a drink in his room.
He was found not guilty after claiming that the woman, from Wolverhampton, consented to sex on April 26 last year.
Smith, of Mossybank Close, Queensbury, Bradford, is now due to be sentenced at Blackfriars Crown Court, south London, on October 27.
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