Woman left scared after being molested by drunk on 10A bus

A judge today (Wednesday, April 10) expressed dismay that no-one on the crowded bus had come to the student’s aid.

Offender had been on 'two-day bender'

Liverpool Crown Court heard that the identity of the offender, Anthony Eccleston, who had been on a two-day bender, was not known but after seeing a CCTV footage image of himself in a news report he voluntarily surrendered to police.

Iain Criddle, prosecuting, told how Eccleston, 31, got on the 10A bus heading from Liverpool towards St Helens at 10.20 am on September 29 last year.

After initially sitting near her he then moved to sit next to her and trapped her with his outstretched legs. He tried to kiss her and said, “Why don’t you kiss me? It’ll make your day,” said Mr Criddle.

The 20-year-old woman, who was on her way to work, had been polite to him at first but “got fed up with his drunken ramblings.”

31-year-old Eccleston was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court (Image: St Helens Star)

Eccleston took a bottle of alcohol out of his bag and after taking the top off with his teeth started drinking from it and offered the bottle to her, which she declined, said Mr Criddle.

He tried to kiss her but she moved her head away and he kept trying to hold her hand and touched her on the shoulder. 

When she reached her stop in Warrington Road, Prescot, she managed to push past him and he said he would try to find her on Facebook.

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The police put pictures from the bus CCTV in the local media. ”He saw the pictures of himself and all credit to him he went to a police station and handed himself in.

“He was remorseful and said he had little recollection because he had been drinking for two days.”

Anthony Eccleston handed himself in after a police CCTV appeal had been circulated in the media (Image: Merseyside Police)

In an impact statement the victim said that the incident has left her anxious and she now sits where she can easily be seen and not sat next to.

Eccleston, of Albion Street, St Helens, pleaded guilty to sexual assault.

Peter White, defending, said that the defendant, who has previous convictions but none similar, is “genuinely remorseful and ashamed of his actions.

“The police did not know his name. He voluntarily contacted the police and did not ask for a solicitor.”

Mr White said that Eccleston had been “very much in drink” at the time of the offence and it had been “a significant wake up call to him. He has cut down significantly since the offence.”

Following the breakdown of a relationship he no longer sees his five-year-old daughter and lives with his grandmother.

Anthony Eccleston (Image: Facebook)

Judge Garrett Byrne said that the victim had been entitled to travel on the bus unmolested. “You sat next to her and placed (your) feet on the seat in order to trap her in the corner of the bus.

“You continued to touch her arm and shoulder while asking for a kiss. She was forced to push past you to get off the bus and in a rather sinister note you said you were going to look her up on Facebook.

“It is a sad sign of the times that no-one on that busy bus came to her assistance.”

The judge sentenced him to nine months imprisonment suspended for 18  months and ordered him to carry out 20 days of rehabilitation activities, and 80 hours unpaid work.

He also imposed a 90 alcohol abstinence monitoring requirement, ordered him to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years and imposed a five year restraining order.