A hospital technician who sexually assaulted a teenager has been jailed for four years and banned from being in a house with any girl aged under 16 for the next 12 years.
Ronald Lalley’s victim was left ‘extremely distressed and traumatised’ after being assaulted by the 53-year-old.
He struck in the week before the 16-year-old girl’s GCSE exams started in May last year.
Lalley, who had spent the night drinking, twice put his hands down the trousers of the teenager, St Albans Crown Court heard on Wednesday.
One of the assaults was rough and painful and afterwards the girl – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – suffered insomnia and depression.
In a victim impact statement taken after her ordeal the girl said she was ‘left extremely distressed and traumatised’, said Simon Sterling, prosecuting.
Lalley, of Kenilworth Close, Hemel Hempstead, was convicted of two charges of assaulting the girl by penetration on May 5 last year.
He had claimed the girl had grabbed his hand and pulled it down.
Lalley previously worked as a telecoms engineer and, at the time of the offence, had been working as a hospital technician.
Francis McGrath, defending, said the assaults were ‘opportunistic’ and that Lalley had no previous convictions.
Judge Marie Catterson told him: “You have to face up to what you did that evening. You had a considerable amount to drink, an excessive amount.
“It was a disgraceful incident. You were drunk and failed to control yourself. You took advantage of a 16-year-old girl.
“You were a man in your 50s who was many, many years her senior.”
She jailed him for four years and passed a sexual protection order banning him from being in a house with any female aged under 16 for the next 12 years. He must also register as a sex offender for life.