Man jailed after sex attack on child
A man from Walsall has been jailed for more than four years after a serious sexual attack on a child.
Richard Hopkins, aged 48, of Fullelove Road, Brownhills, left the girl so scarred by the assault that she was reluctant to talk about it at first because it triggered flashbacks, a court heard.
But within hours of the attack, in September last year, she broke down in tears and told her mother everything.
Hopkins was sentenced to four and a half years in prison yesterday at Wolverhampton Crown Court
It is not the first time Hopkins has struck after he was given a hospital order in 1987 for sexually assaulting another young girl.
In 1990 he groped an adult woman while in a mental hospital.
In has latest attack, he forced his arms around the child on a sofa and held her down with his leg before sexually assaulting her.
The court heard that the victim told him she did not want him to touch her and described Hopkins as smelling of old cigarette smoke with 'big dirty hands'.
The girl said she was too weak to fight him off and the moment he touched her was 'horrible and uncomfortable'.
Hopkins broke off the attack of his own accord.
After the victim told her family and the incident was reported to the police, investigators found his DNA on her clothes.
Hopkins pleaded guilty to sexual assault at an earlier hearing in February.
Whilst sentencing Judge Martin Walsh said: "This took place over a period of time and some force was used when you overbore her attempts to resist your advances.
"I don't find that your previous convictions are aggravating here because there is no information about the circumstances.
"But it is a fact this was an offence against a background of having offended in a similar manner in the past."
Judge Walsh added that Hopkins will serve half of his four and half year term in prison and half on licence.
He was also put on the sex offences register for life.
