Jailed: Craven Arms man filmed sexual assault on unconscious woman

Josef Meszes, 44, of Willow Grove, Craven Arms, appeared at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Friday after admitting aiding or encouraging a sexual assault.

He was given a three-month jail sentence and told he would have to serve half in custody.

Judge Peter Barrie told Meszes that the woman who had been assaulted had been humiliated by the video and that by filming he had encouraged the crime.

The court heard the man who committed the assault had been jailed for four years at an earlier hearing.

Tariq Shakoor, prosecuting, said the assault happened at a farm in Craven Arms at a caravan site for the agricultural workers.

The victim, a woman in her 20s had gone to visit friends there and was drinking with them on a late afternoon in April.

She heard music coming from one of the caravans and went over to it but then had no recollection of the next six hours.

Laughing

She next remembered being in Craven Arms itself, six miles away.

The next day she saw Meszes who she said was laughing at her.

She challenged him and he showed her a video on his phone of her in the caravan, unconscious, being sexually assaulted. The perpetrator had smiled at the camera and given it the thumbs up.

She made him delete the video but later became aware that other people had seen it.

In her victim impact statement the victim said she had been a happy normal girl before the assault but had lost her confidence, was horrified by what had happened and was now wary of going out.

Mr Adrian Roberts for Meszes, said his client had not taken part in any way in the assault.

Judge Barrie told Meszes that on one hand the video had led to the the perpetrator being found, but he said that seeing it and knowing other people had seen it had been humiliating and upsetting for the victim.

"You recording what was happening was an encouragement for the man committing the assault to carry on," he said.