A DRINK and drug-fuelled partygoer sexually assaulted a five-year-old boy in front of his young sister, Bradford Crown Court heard.

The little boy used a teddy bear and a doll to show the police what Bentley Hempsey did to him when he came into the children’s bedroom after returning to the house with their mother.

Hempsey, of Chelker Close, Clayton Heights, Bradford, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the boy on January 24 last year and was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment, suspended for two years.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said he was taking an exceptional course because Hempsey was of previous impeccable character.

There was no grooming of the boy, Hempsey had pleaded guilty and been very frank with the probation service, who felt they could work with him in the community.

The sentence included a three month electronically monitored overnight curfew, 100 hours of unpaid work, a rehabilitation activity requirement and an order to pay £500 towards the prosecution cost.

Hempsey must sign on the sex offenders' register for ten years and obey a restraining order banning him from having any contact with the boy and his family.

Prosecutor Stephen Wood said Hempsey met the boy’s mother at a party and she invited him back to her Bradford home.

She heard her son pacing round his bedroom in the morning and the child told her he could not sleep without his Spider Man pillow. The boy said his mother’s “friend” had taken it in the night and had touched him.

His mother alerted the police and the child pointed to the groin area on a teddy bear he was shown.

The boy’s little sister recalled seeing a man kneeling over her brother and kissing him.

Hempsey denied the offence when interviewed by the police, saying he had drunk vodka and taken cocaine at the party, and could not explain how the boy’s pillow ended up in another room.

Mr Wood said that despite the child’s young age, he was carefully interviewed by expert officer, PC Andrew Teale, who asked him to demonstrate on a doll what Hempsey had done to him.

Mr Wood said the Crown had concluded that the inappropriate touching was over the boy’s nightclothes.

Hempsey’s solicitor advocate, Ray Singh, conceded that the offence crossed the custody threshold but said it could be suspended.

The defendant was in full employment and it was rare for similar offenders to be so frank with the probation service.

Judge Durham Hall said that, exceptionally in such cases, the probation service felt able to work with Hempsey because he had been open with them, answering all their questions. He did not know his way round the house and claimed he went into the children’s bedroom by accident.

“Whether that was the wrong room, or whether there were matters going on in your mind that require explanation, you sexually assaulted that little boy,” the judge said.

Judge Durham Hall publicly commended PC Teale for his skill and care in interviewing the boy.