A MAN who attacked a drunken woman in an alleyway was jailed for 12 months yesterday, as a deterrent to others.

Dane Buttery, 22, who had also been drinking and who knew the woman before they met in the street, was told by the judge at Teesside Crown Court that women had to be protected from that sort of behaviour.

Buttery, of Eastport Road, Stockton, was jailed for 12 months and ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years, after he pleaded guilty to sexual assault on May 11.

The woman had been drinking cider at her home before she set off to visit a friend on a summer evening, said Simon Reevell, prosecuting.

She met Buttery, and as they walked together, they were "messing about" pushing each other.

They walked into an alleyway where they were seen by a group of people in a nearby house.

Buttery tried to kiss her and she pushed him away, but he pushed her to the floor.

He touched her breasts over her clothing and she shouted 'rape', at which point he ran.

The watching people ran to her aid and found that she was distressed and grazed.

Buttery was arrested later and he said that he had been drinking all day before he met her and recognised her.

Dan Cordey, mitigating, said that Buttery was naive with women and he seemed to have misread what had, in fact, been friendliness on her part.

He said that Buttery spent a week in custody and was then tagged and under a curfew for seven months.

He added: "In one way and another, this has been a salutary lesson to this young man."

Judge Peter Armstrong told Buttery: "As a deterrent to you, and to anyone else who thinks they can behave like this, there has to be a custodial sentence.

"Women have to be protected from this sort of behaviour."