A pub customer who put his hand up a young woman’s skirt as she waited to be served at the bar has been sent on a sex offenders’ treatment programme.

Obey Dzuda left the victim so shocked that she threw away the short skirt which she had been wearing because it reminded her of the assault. She also felt uneasy about going back to her local in Exmouth.

Dzuda had been drinking before he carried out the assault at the Number Nine bar in Exmouth on May 21 last year and went on to spit at a police sergeant after officers were called to the scene.

He claimed at first that the contact with the young woman was accidental and he had touched her with a bank card which he had been holding, rather than with his fingers.

Dzuda, aged 44, of Alphington Road Exeter, admitted sexual assault and assaulting an emergency worker and was ordered to attend a 43-session sexual offenders’ treatment course by Judge Stephen Climie at Exeter Crown Court.

He was also put on an alcohol monitoring tag for 90 days and ordered to do 30 days of rehabilitation activities as part of a three year community order and told to pay £300 compensation to the woman he assaulted and £75 to the police officer.

The judge told him: “Lack of respect is what this amounts to. It is becoming widespread in society and it has to stop. One way to stop people acting like this is to punish them and make sure they appreciate how serious it is.”

Miss Beth Rickerby, prosecuting, said a young customer was waiting to be served at the Number Nine bar when she felt Dzuda’s hand go up her skirt and touch her genitals as he was standing beside her.

She pulled away and raised the alarm, leading to the police being called. Dzuda resisted arrest and spat at an officer. He pleaded guilty on the basis that it was his bank card rather than his hand that touched the woman’s private parts and that he had been clearing his throat when he spat at the officer.

The woman wrote a victim personal statement which said she was so disgusted by what Dzuda had done that she asked her mother to throw away the sort skirt she had been wearing. She is now wary about standing in queues and less trusting of men.

Miss Felicity Payne, defending, said Dzuda is keen to work with probation to ensure there is no repeat of this offence. She said he is in work but is struggling financially and cannot afford to pay a large amount in compensation or costs.