BURNLEY MAN JAILED FOR SEX WITH DRUNKEN GIRL, 14
MAY 2014: Burnley man, who attacked partner in chocolate row, walks free from court AN ex-drug addict who subjected his partner to a sustained midnight assault told a neighbour she had been the attacker and had eaten his chocolate, a court heard.Burnley magistrates were told how vulnerable Shelly Conway had been set on by Mark Wathen, 39, who had punched her in the head, pushed her around the room at their Brush Street home in the town and covered her mouth with his hands.
Their neighbour, alerted by screams, arrived to see the defendant degrading the victim by picking her up from the floor by her hair.
Wathen told the neighbour: “Look at her, attacking me again, like she always does.” The neighbour at the other side of the couple’s home, who had also heard the victim's cries, had gone round and had also been told by the defendant that Ms Conway had just assaulted him.
The neighbour knew it was the victim he had heard screaming and not Wathen.
The hearing was told how the defendant, who was on methadone and Ms Conway, said by Wathen to be addicted to valium and a heroin user, had started their 18 month relationship after meeting at a chemist's shop.
They were still together and he wanted to be a good partner to her.
Wathen had stood in the dock facing immediate jail, but was given 12 weeks in prison, suspended for a year, with 12 months supervision.
He must also pay £85 costs and an £80 victim surcharge, after admitting assault by beating on March 20.
Prosecutor Tracy Yates said Ms Conway had suffered a painful and swollen eye, a mark to her arm and soreness.
Nick Dearing, defending, said Wathen was ashamed of what happened.
Wathen has 30 offences on his record.
_______________________________________ JUNE 2008: A MAN has been jailed for more than two years after he took sexual advantage of a drunken 14-year-old girl.
Mark Wathen, 34, had sex with the girl at a house party in Burnley after buying two bottles of vodka, Preston Crown Court was told.
Wathen, of Waterbarn Street, Burnley, was originally arrested and charged with rape.
The case came to trial but on the second day of the hearing he pleaded guilty to an offence of sexual activity with a child, which was accepted by prosecutors.
Wathen was jailed for 27 months by Judge Pamela Badley, banned from working with children indefinitely and placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
Prosecutor Roger Green said the girl had been at a party in the Daneshouse area of the town in spring 2007 with friends.
Wathen had arrived after 11pm and had gone out to buy a bottle of vodka.
Once that had been consumed he went out to buy a second bottle.
Eventually the girl, two other young people and Wathen were left in the front room of the property, as everyone else had gone to bed.
Mr Green said that after the two other people fell asleep Wathen began to take off his clothes until he was naked.
He then helped the girl to remove her clothing and, being drunk, she fell back on a couch, the court heard, where he climbed on top of her and started to have sex.
Mr Green said that she later told police that she told him several times that she was only 14 and that he should stop.
When the sex ended she fell asleep on the couch and he slept on the floor, the court was told.
Arrested and interviewed by police, Wathen admitted he had had sex with the girl but maintained he had only found out she was 14 the next day.
He believed that she was around 17-years-old.
Jeremy Lasker, defending, said his client, who was an alcoholic, had not plied the girl with vodka, but accepted he knew she was drunk at the time of the offence.
He said that the girl was already sexually active and it was not the case that his client had taken her virginity.
Passing sentence, Judge Badley said: "You must understand that this is a very serious matter because you were a man of 32 at the time, someone who had considerable experience of life.
You were in a long-term relationship, you are a father and you knew that this young girl had been affected by drink."
