Andrew Cox-Young

A man from Thornaby has been jailed following a brazen sexual assault on a woman in public, where he ignored her desperate pleas to stop and later dismissed the incident as humour.

The assault began when Andrew Cox-Young, aged 38, approached his victim and started by touching her chest and hair. Despite being asked to stop five times, he persisted, as detailed by prosecutor Paul Newcombe at Teesside Crown Court. The woman recounted to police: 'I turned away. He came behind me and grabbed my bottom with some force. He made a noise as if he was aroused by it. I screamed and froze.' Cox-Young only released his grip when she screamed, according to reports from Teesside Live.

Cox-Young, of Valiant Way in Thornaby, pleaded guilty to sexual assault at an earlier hearing. The court heard of his extensive criminal history, including a long-standing drug addiction and current imprisonment for breaching a criminal behaviour order. Previous convictions include obstructing paramedics in 2020 while they treated a patient, burgling Mint nightclub in 2021 after his PIP payments were stopped, and attempting to break into a house in Linthorpe just months before the assault, claiming it was 'to use the toilet'.

• In April of the previous year, Cox-Young received a two-year criminal behaviour order (CBO) for abusive begging in Middlesbrough town centre, restricting him from entering the area without an appointment and prohibiting abusive behaviour towards the public, shop workers, or local authority staff.
• He was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison for breaching this order and faces further court proceedings in December after another violation on 5 October.

Judge Andrew Sutcliffe condemned Cox-Young's attitude, stating he had 'tried to laugh the incident off, as if it didn't matter'. On Monday, the judge imposed a 10-week custodial sentence, to run concurrently with his existing term, with expected release in early December. Additionally, Cox-Young must attend drug misuse sessions, undergo mandatory drugs tests upon release, abide by a five-year restraining order barring contact with the victim, and register on the sex offenders' register for seven years.

This case, reported by the Manchester Evening News and Teesside Live, highlights ongoing issues with public safety and repeat offending in the region.