A TRUCKER who tried to kiss a sleeping guest after a boozy barbecue has been put on the sex offenders’ register.

The horrified woman awoke at around 6am to find Simon Hesse kissing her and promptly threw him out of the room where she had been staying.

They had both been drinking for several hours at a barbecue party at a house in central Newton Abbot in July 2019 and she had been put to bed after passing out.

Hesse was meant to have been sleeping elsewhere in the house but went into her room to take her a cup of tea in the morning. He claimed she kissed him after mistaking him for her boyfriend.

He was cleared of a far more serious allegation of assault by penetration by a jury at Exeter Crown Court after a trial in July.

Hesse, aged 35, of Cummings Cross, Liverton, denied and was found not guilty of assault by penetration, but was convicted of a different sexual assault which consisted of kissing.

He was jailed for six months, suspended for two years and ordered to do 30 hours of rehabilitation activities and pay £600 compensation by Recorder Mr Richard Stead at Exeter Crown Court.

He also ordered him to sign on the sex offenders’ register for seven years.

He told him: ‘The kissing did not last for long but was a completely unwarranted intrusion on the victim as she was sleeping off her drunkenness. Her personal statement makes it clear she now feels unsafe.’

During a trial in July, Mr Lee Bremridge, prosecuting, said Hesse had been expected to sleep on a sofa or camp bed downstairs. 

She alleged he had already woken and assaulted her in the middle of the night before she was awoken again at about 6 am, when he kissed her.

Hesse denied both assaults and said he had got into bed because he wanted to sleep but that the woman had mistaken him for her boyfriend.

He said any kissing was consensual.

Mr William Parkhill, defending, said Hesse has no history of sexual offending, was cleared of the more serious offence, and lost his relationship with his partner as a result of these allegations.

He is now working full time as an HGV driver and hoping to move to a permanent new home soon.