A SEX attacker who pounced after offering to give a woman a lift home late at night has been jailed.
Instead of driving the 28-year-old home, Mark Mills, 34, drove to a secluded spot in New Kyo, near Stanley, County Durham, and subjected her to a 15-minute ordeal.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that Mills had offered to take the woman, who knew him slightly, the short journey to her home on May 8, last year.
Mills, of Aron Road, South Stanley, was initially charged with attempted rape, but a plea to the lesser charge of indecent assault was accepted by prosecutors. This meant the victim did not have to give evidence.
Mr Justice Henriques sentenced Mills to a year in prison.
He said: "This was a grave example of indecent assault."
Mills was also placed on the sex offenders' register for ten years.
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