A WORKER at a holiday park near Weston sexually assaulted a woman while she was sleeping, a court heard.

Dad-of-one Laurie McRae, aged 41, was handed a 12 week prison sentence suspended for one year when he appeared at North Somerset Courthouse on Monday.

Magistrates were told that the incident happened at Sand Bay Holiday Village in Kewstoke on June 6.

McRae, who was carrying out decorating work for Martyn Leisure at the park, had been drinking with the victim and two men.

They went to one of their rooms and after watching a film all of the men left, leaving the victim by herself.

Becky Gardner, prosecuting, said the woman was sleeping on a sofa when she heard McRae come back into the room at around 4am.

He dragged an armchair over to her and she put her feet up and fell back asleep.

Ms Gardner said: “She then woke up with the defendant touching her. He started running his hands on the outside of her bra and inside her jeans but she could not remember if he touched inside her underwear.

“She was extremely frightened and pretended to be asleep.”

The court was told that McRae, of Whinney Lane, Newark, then went into the bathroom and the victim fled the room to inform two park supervisors before calling the police.

When McRae was arrested, he told police he was intoxicated and couldn’t remember anything after eating a bacon sandwich which the victim had cooked for him.

Ian Denley, defending, said: “He is devastated that he should find himself in this position.

“He’s got drunk and he’s misbehaved in an entirely inappropriate way.

“He has a wife and a very young child of his own. The idea he could lose them at this stage is devastating for him.”

Mr Denley added that McRae, who pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to intentionally sexually touching a woman, has lost his job since the incident.

The chief magistrate told McRae when sentencing him: “This was a vulnerable victim. You deliberately returned to her room when you felt she was asleep. This is a serious offence.”

McRae was also ordered to pay �1,500 in compensation to the victim, costs of �85 and will have to sign onto the sex offenders register for five years.