Creep (60) who sexually assaulted woman sleeping in her bed is jailed for two years

Jailing 60-year-old Gavin Finlay at Antrim Crown Court, Judge Alistair Devlin said he had trawled through the papers and reports hunting for “cogent evidence of related remorse or contrition for what you did to a highly vulnerable victim, asleep in her own house, in her own bed.”

Scathingly, he told the creep his search had found “little, if any, convincing evidence of real remorse on your part.”

Finlay, from the Bruston Brae Road in the harbour town of Larne admitted that on a date unknown between 8-11 September 2021, he sexually assaulted a woman and that the assault involved penetration with his fingers.

Prosecuting counsel Suzanne Gallagher told the court how Finlay has been invited to the woman’s house and the pair had been drinking when she became tired so went to bed.

Finlay had been told to let himself out and lock the door but instead, he sneaked into the victim’s bedroom and sexually assaulted her while she slept.

She awoke in the middle of it and shouted at the creep to get out of her house.

The victim alerted her partner, the police and Finlay himself and “he apologised to her on the phone.”

Ms Gallagher said the shocked victim also discovered a voicemail from her attacker which he left within hours of the assault.

When Finlay was arrested, his son asked him what had happened and although he said then that "I did something bad last night,” he later refused to answer police questions at interview.

Jailing Finlay on Wednesday, Judge Devlin said his offence was aggravated because there is “an element of a breach of trust” given that he had been invited into her home before he took the opportunity to assault the victim “in her own home, in her bedroom when she was asleep in her bed….a place where she ought to have been able to consider herself safe.”

In addition there had been significant harm caused to the victim who threw her bed out and redecorated the room but “still struggles to sleep in the room where this occurred.”

Her trauma was also compounded by Finlay’s repeated denials until shortly before his trial date when he finally accepted his guilt.

“All she ever wanted was for you to admit what you did,” concluded the judge.

Handed a two year sentence, Finlay was ordered to serve half that in jail and half on licence and in addition, the sneaky creep must sign the police sex offenders register for ten years.