AN Abermeurig man who told a woman that he was “the best you are going to get” before groping her, has been handed a community order after pleading guilty to sexual assault.

Barry Nicholas Hester of Llwyn Madog started talking sexually and trying to persuade the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to have sex with him during the incident last August, Aberystwyth magistrates heard.

The court heard that the woman tried to ignore the sexual comments being made by 25-year-old Hester, before he slapped her thigh and then started squeezing it.

Helen Tench, prosecuting, told the court that Hester ran his legs up the woman’s leg and her inner thigh, and grabbed her between her legs over her leggings.

Hester repeatedly asked her for sex, telling her “I’m the best you’re going to get” and that “I would destroy you”, the court heard.

The woman was “frightened and scared” the court heard and threatened Hester with a pen-knife in a bid to get him to stop.

She eventually made her excuses and left after telling Hester: “Get the f*** off me, what are you doing?”

Hester, the court heard, laughed off the incident and initially denied any wrongdoing in a police interview after he was arrested.

In a victim impact statement read out in court, the woman said she is now “finding it difficult to sleep” and that she “doesn’t feel herself anymore”.

Defence solicitor Katie Hanson told the court that Hester “deeply regrets his actions”.

“He fully accepts that it is not acceptable and is not the way he would normally behave,” she said.

Hester denied he was drunk on the day, but Ms Hanson said he had “limited recollection of what he said and did” and was “embarrassed” when the facts were read out.

Hester pleaded guilty to the charge at an earlier hearing and was handed a nine-month community order with 25 rehabilitation activity days.

He was also ordered to pay compensation of £100, costs of £85 and an £85 surcharge, and made the subject of a restraining order.