November 2000 Grabbed at girl who laughed at advances A MAN indecently assaulted a 15-year-old girl because he felt humiliated when she laughed off his sexual advances. Kevin Thomas Evans pleaded guilty to the attack during which he dragged the victim up a driveway pulling herclothing up around her neck. He was tracked down when the teenager’s friend, who witnessed the assault, later spotted Evans in the street. She followed him back to his house and called the police. The 26-year-old, who lives at St James Road, Hereford, has been placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register and given three years’ probation by Hereford Magistrates. Evans, a farm-worker in Tillington, approached the two 15-year-old girls in Ledbury Road near the Texaco garage on the night of August 31. He asked them back to his flat for sex. They refused and walked on. He grabbed the one girl and attempted to kiss her on the cheek. He led her up a dark driveway and lifted her sweatshirt, vest top and bra around her neck. She said he tried to pull down her trousers too. His victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, fought him off, kneeing him in the groin. Remorseful When police arrived at his home in St James Road several weeks later, the court heard that he immediately said: “I know what it’s about. It was in Ledbury Road. I would like to say sorry to the girl.” He told police that he grabbed the girl after she and her friend laughed at him. Anthony Weston defending said: “He was emotionally scarred by the break-up of a relationship and deeply hurt. He saw a pretty girl in the streets and he reacted in a way he shouldn’t have done. “The whole thing was made worse by the laughter of the young girls.” Mr Weston, who described Evans as a man who does not find life easy, said the charge of indecent assault came about because of the context of the incident, rather than the content, arguing that a struggle had occurred that was not of a sexual nature. The court heard that Evans was remorseful. “It’s in his thinking every quarter-of-an hour of every waking hour,” said Mr Weston. Magistrates told Evans he had come close to being sent to prison as an example to others, but they decided his problem needed treatment to protect the public from him. He was ordered to pay £1,000 compensation to his 15-year-old victim.