Former Durham University director jailed for sexual assault on two sleeping women
Andrew Harston was sentenced to 14 years in prison and placed on the sex offenders register
A former Durham University director has been jailed for sexually assaulting two women whilst they were asleep.
Andrew Harston denied four charges against him and claimed the sex was consensual whilst on trial at Teeside Crown Court.
He has since been convicted and subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order, Chronicle Live reports.
Harston, of Kirkwood Drive, Durham, was foudn guilty of two counts of sexual assault and two counts of assault by penetration last month.
The incidents took place back when he was director of development and alumni relations at Durham University.
via Cleaveland Police
The jury heard how the 39-year-old sexually assaulted a drunk woman whilst she was asleep at home and committed assault by penetration. The second assault was on another woman, who was also said to be intoxicated at the time.
The offences dated back to whilst Harston was under police investigation for the first set of allegations. Harston maintained in police interviews that any sexual activity with one of the women was consensual.
In victim impact statements read out to the court, one victim described how she was left needing counselling and suffering panic attacks.
The other woman spoke of the trauma she went through, saying: “He has ruined my life with his actions.”
Judge Jonathan Carroll said about the defendant: “Each of these two women endured your sexually offending whilst they were significantly under the influence of alcohol, alcohol you had provided.”
In reference to one of the woman, he said: “I have no doubt whatsoever you were fully aware of how significantly under the influence she was and you could see that.”
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Judge Carroll added whilst it was not Harston’s intention to sexually assault the woman from the outset, it became his intention and he set about how he was going to achieve it.
In the case of the second victim, Judge Carroll said it was the defendant’s plan from the outset to get her intoxicated and supplied her with alcohol throughout the evening.
Ian Lowther, prosecuting, described the former Durham University director as a “sexual predator”.
Mr Lowther said: “In both cases, the victims awoke to the terrifying experience of finding Harston in the process of carrying out sexual assaults upon them.
“Throughout the course of this trial, Andrew Harston has tried to minimise his responsibility for these attacks, falsely claiming that any sexual activity with his victims was entirely consensual.”
He said the case proved “neither victims possessed the capacity to give informed consent to sexual activity at the time he carried out these attacks” and “there was no way that Harston could have reasonably believed that they had”.
Harston was sentenced to 14 years in prison and placed on the sex offenders register.
Featured image via Cleaveland Police
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