An estate and letting agent who groped a teenage girl has been jailed for 19 months and will have to register as a sex offender for the next ten years.
Darren Ludbrook, of Shibden, Halifax, gave the teenager a lift in his Mercedes S-Class car.
He twice stopped the car, trapping’ the girl in it while he first started rubbing her legs and then put his hand down her bra and grabbed her breast.
Ludbrook, 43, who was fined and bound over for indecent exposure nearly 20 years ago according to local media, told the teenager not to tell her parents, but was subsequently confronted by them.
Prosecuting, Jayne Beckett told Bradford Crown Court that Ludbrook said he had only kissed the girl. He had later told the police that the girl wanted to kiss him.
However, Judge Jonathan Rose said it had been an act of cowardice for Ludbrook to try and blame his victim.
The Judge told Ludbrook: “You believed, possibly through the arrogance of your position and your years, that she would have a sexual interest in you.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. She was not remotely interested in you.
“This was not a moment of madness. This was something you led up to and you targeted her.”
The Judge said it was an utterly appalling offence which had terrified the girl.
For Ludbrook, Abdul Shakoor said his client now accepted that what he had done was wrong.
He said Ludbrook had to sell his estate agency business because of the stress caused by the court case, but was currently running a lettings business.
According to Companies House, he resigned on May 1 this year as a director of Ludbrook Estates. Other directorships of property firms are listed.
Nasty piece of work.
Sexual assault is no minor thing, and people facing the consequences of their actions always gives me some peace of mind, but it is bittersweet.
Here’s hoping the victim is okay.
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I don’t get the labelling here – ‘Estate and Letting Agent’. No, he’s a Pervert first who just happens to work in agency.
If Priti Patel genuinely wants people to be afraid of the law/consequences of criminal action, harsher penalties than 19 months in a cosy nonce’s prison are required – chemical castration springs to mind. That poor kid’s whole life/mental health is now going to be shaped by the actions of some sicko!
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