Ban on drivinginstructor whogroped women

A DRIVING instructor who groped two pupils while teaching them to drive has been given a suspended jail sentence.

Michael Goodwin was also barred from such a job for the next two years, although his counsel Christopher Dunn told Leeds Crown Court yesterday he is no longer in such employment.

The court heard Goodwin touched the two women, one aged 28 and the other 18, during lessons by putting his hand in the area of their genitals over their trousers.

He also put his hand on the teenager’s bottom after getting her out of the car to look at the engine, Felicity Davies, prosecuting, told the court.

Goodwin, 41, of Garrison Court, Pontefract, admitted two charges of sexual assault which the court heard were samples of a course of conduct against the two women.

Sentencing him to 50 weeks in prison, suspended for two years, with supervision, 200 hours unpaid work and prosecution costs of 1,000, Justice Scott Wolstenholme told him he had only just avoided immediate custody.

He told him: “In addition I am going to prohibit you from pursuing employment as a driving instructor which brings you into contact with lone females in a vulnerable situation.”

He said while the sexual assaults themselves were at the low end of the scale of such offences there were serious aggravating features.

“Your victims were women whom you were teaching to drive, that’s a position of trust, they are with you in a car, often in remote places and if you choose to abuse that trust you are in a position of considerable power over them.”

He had repeated his actions and although he told a probation officer he felt bad about it afterwards that had not stopped him claiming they had misinterpreted or misunderstood his actions when seen by police, only admitting what he had done on the day of trial.

Ordering Goodwin to register as a sex offender for 10 years the judge commended Pc Laura Strong for “some dogged and determined police work” in getting the case to court after linking the similar complaints four years apart.

Miss Davies said the 28-year-old began taking driving lessons in 2004 but it was during her first one in 2005 that Goodwin asked for a kiss. She refused but he told her all his other pupils had kissed him.

During her next lesson he began touching her leg, putting his hand on her left knee. That became a more frequent event during lessons. By March he had become bolder and moved his hand up to the top between her legs over her trousers causing her to become scared.

When that happened for longer periods and he began to squeeze her leg, she became so upset her husband found her in tears. The lessons were cancelled and a complaint made to the police but after Goodwin denied any sexual motive no case was brought.

The papers in the case were, however, re-examined after the similar complaint last year.

About five weeks after he began lessons with the teenager he started talking to her about his private life patting her on the leg. During other lessons he kissed her bare arm and fondled her groin area over her trousers. A complaint was then made to police.

Mr Dunn said Goodwin was not a man who “preyed consistently” on his female pupils.