A PEST who forced himself on a college student down a narrow Bridgwater alley after she refused to give him “a Christmas kiss” has avoided prison.

David Mathias, 38, of Fairfax Road, Bridgwater, admitted sexually assaulting the 17-year-old two weeks before Christmas when he appeared at Taunton Crown Court on Friday (July 27).

He was given a two-year suspended sentence and a curfew, and was ordered to pay compensation to the victim.

The court heard how Mathias stopped to speak to the unassuming girl while she was walking through Piggy Lane, close to the town’s railway station on the morning of December 8 last year.

He told her “you look fit” and then asked for “a Christmas kiss”. The girl blew him a kiss before turning away, but he grabbed her arm, pulled her towards him and “snogged” her, said prosecutor Caroline Bolt.

She arrived at college distressed and walked there with her grandfather the next day as a result.

Paul Light, defending, said Mathias suffered badly from mental health problems and added: “It was quite clear that what was going to happen happened.

“He wanted a Christmas gift from a young girl who he found attractive.

“He suffers from mental health issues. He isn’t 38 in his behaviour.”

Sentencing Mathias, who has a history of indecent assault and approaching young girls, Judge Eric Salomonsen said: “It was an unwanted attack and it gave the victim extreme distress.

“If you thought a 17-year-old girl would welcome an approach from a complete stranger of your age you were woefully mistaken.

“The issue I’ve been grappling with this morning is whether you have to go straight to prison or be let back into the community.”