Fondling case man avoids jail (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Fondling case man avoids jail

A CARE worker who admitted fondling the breasts of a cleaner at a Cotswold residential home has escaped prison.

Anthony Robins, aged 50, of Tuffley in Gloucester, admitted touching the breasts and bottom of the woman at Ashton House, Stow, on July 17 last year.

He had pleaded guilty in February but his trial was aborted because of a technicality.

On Friday Catherine Brunner, prosecuting, told the court that Robins, a senior care assistant, had approached the woman as she cleaned an empty resident's room and cupped her breasts.

She pushed him away but he then put his hands on her bottom and groin area.

Robins then exposed himself to the woman.

Paul Grumbar, for Robins, said: "It is perhaps not easy to describe the atmosphere in which this man worked. There was an awful lot of sexual banter going on among the employees."

Robins was sentenced to a three-year community rehabilitation order, with a sex offender programme. He will also have to sign the sex offenders' register and was ordered to pay the victim £750.