A MAN indecently assaulted a 12-year-old girl as she slept while her mother sat waiting for him downstairs.

Raymond Mickle, 23, assaulted the youngster at her Chester-le-Street home on February 4.

He had been playing a board game with her mother while the youngster and her brother slept upstairs.

Having excused himself from the game, saying he wanted to use the toilet, he crept upstairs and assaulted the girl.

John Aitken, prosecuting, said: "He crept along and entered her room. The girl was asleep and he reached under the covers and put his hand beneath her nightdress.

"He realised she had woken and said he was sorry, then left the room and went downstairs and carried on as normal."

He denied the allegations when arrested, but yesterday pleaded guilty to indecent assault on the first day of his trial.

Mickle, of no fixed address, will be sentenced on January 15