June 2013 ‘I can’t control urges’ – Newport sex offender A sex offender who breached his suspended sentence within six weeks of it being passed, has been jailed. Michael Webber, 18, of Harlequin Court, Newport pleaded guilty at Newport Crown Court to one count of sexual assault. Prosecutor David Pugh told the court Webber had sexually assaulted a woman, whom he did not know, on April 12. Mr Pugh read from the victim’s impact statement, and told the court the victim was walking along a road in Newport when she heard the defendant whistle at her and noticed he was following her. The victim was walking up the steps of an underpass when she felt, “a really hard slap” across her bottom. Mr Pugh said: “She turned around and saw the defendant who had been following her.” He said she felt “shocked but not scared”. Webber was arrested and admitted the offence. Mr Pugh said: “He said he committed the offence because he said he felt this urge, and at times he cannot control it. “He said he feels he needs professional help because he could not say he would not commit this again.” Mr Pugh told the court following the incident the victim feels worried she will be attacked if anyone is walking behind her. When Webber committed this offence he was in breach of a 16-month detention sentence for sexual assault. Harry Baker, for Webber, told the court Webber was still a young man who acknowledges he suffers from a very “considerable problem”. Judge Philip Richards told Webber: “You seem to consider that you have some compulsion to do what you have now done on two occasions.” Webber was given six months for this attack and 16 months for breaching the suspended sentence, totalling 22 months in a young offenders’ institution. He was given an extended licence of four years on release and ordered to pay an £80 victim surcharge.