Man jailed for sexual assault in Cheltenham
Sierra Leone-born Santigie Conteh was cleared of rape but was found guilty of sexual assault at Gloucester Crown Court.
Passing a two-year sentence on the 23-year-old, Judge Martin Picton said the woman had not been conscious or consenting to what happened that night.
Conteh had committed a "gross breach of her trust, gross invasion of her privacy and her rights," he added.
"You tried to take advantage of her insensible condition."
During the trial the woman told how she fell asleep on a bedroom floor in High Street and woke to find a man having sex with her.
She said she was sleeping face down when she had what she thought was a nightmare – only to wake and realise her trousers had been pulled down.
By the time she was fully awake the man had stopped what he was doing go her and gone to the bathroom in the flat, she said.
Conteh, of Edward Wilson House, Princess Elizabeth Way, Cheltenham, was in the flat that night and he admitted to police that he did want sex with the woman.
He went as far as putting on a condom and lying down behind her. He claimed that he rubbed himself against her in the hope that she would turn round to face him and have sex.
But, he told police, she did not respond so he went to the bathroom and threw the condom in the bin.
He did not rape or penetrate her, he insisted.
The incident happened after the woman had been out drinking in Cheltenham.
She had drunk a lot of alcohol and was feeling very drunk and drowsy when she lay down on the floor.
Conteh had denied raping the woman or penetrating her in any way.
In mitigation, the court heard that Conteh had lost both his parents in Sierra Leone and had been brought to the UK by foster parents.
Their relationship had broken down, they had no contact and he had no support whatsoever in this country.
As a result he had drifted into a lifestyle of drinking and drug taking.
Judge Picton ordered Conteh to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years and revoked any community orders that were in place.
It is likely the length of his jail term will automatically trigger deportation action by the Home Office when he has served his sentence, the judge heard.
