A WOMAN who was the victim of a sexual assault while she helped a pensioner mow the lawn has said the experience has left her unable to trust anyone.

Bryan Matthews, 73, of Clyffe Pypard, was given a conditional discharge and made to sign the sex offenders’ register for three years at Chippenham Magistrates’ Court on Monday after pleading guilty to sexual assault.

He had asked the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to help him in the garden when he grabbed her from behind while trying to kiss her neck and touch her breasts.

“I am shaken up. In the courtroom the defence solicitor was saying that Mr Matthews was frightened when the police came to arrest him,” she said. “I thought to myself you should have been expecting it because you have done a bad thing. I wasn’t expecting you to do what you did so how frightened did you think I would be?

“It has changed me. I am not just able to trust people and help them now.”

Matthews was charged with sexually touching a woman without consent and not having reason to believe she was consenting.

As well as a three-year conditional discharge and three years on the sex offenders register, he was given a three-year restraining order against and made to pay £1,000 compensation and court costs of £85.

“Mr Matthews asked me if I could help him cut his grass as he was suffering from sciatica, so I went round to do it,” she said in a police statement. “I was halfway through mowing the back lawn when he told me that his wife had gone out.

“I carried on until that lawn was finished. He then grabbed me and held me from behind with my arms pinned to my body so I could not move, while trying to kiss my neck and touching my breasts.

“He used suggestive and sexual language throughout, including telling me go in the house to take my trousers off as they were covered in grass cuttings.

“I was terrified and he knew it. Then he asked ‘are you scared?’ and then ‘are you going to scream?’ and held me tighter.

“At this point I really believed my life was in danger, wondering what he would do to me to keep me quiet. He tried to get me inside the house.

“I was in no doubt he intended to go further, before I was able to get away from him.

“I was fortunate that as he moved his right hand down between my legs it freed my right arm and I found the strength to prise him off and get free.

“I would never have knowingly put myself at risk to help someone but there was nothing to say in his previous behaviour that he might assault me.”