Prisoner sexually assaulted voluntary Leeds prison worker who tried to help him

Daniel Brearley made suggestive advances towards the woman at HMP Wealstun, then touched her bottom as she walked past, Leeds Crown Court heard. Brearley denied any wrongdoing but was found guilty after a trial.

The volunteer worker, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was there to help Brearley as he geared up to be freed from the Wetherby Category C prison in October 2021.

During a conversation, he “prodded” her hand and said to her: “You won’t forget me will you?” The woman later said he was staring at her in a “sexual manner”. Then when she later walked down the stairs where he was stood, he then leaned over and slapped her bottom. The incident was caught on CCTV but he denied the offence.

Brearley, who had been living at Elizabeth Street in Elland, was also found guilty after a trial of intentional strangulation when he and his partner had a bust-up in April 2023. He grabbed her by the throat with both hands but was able to fend him off. When he tried to stop her from leaving, she smashed a vase over his head. Again, he denied wrongdoing and was found guilty after a trial.

Finally, during a separate incident he was threatened a member of the public with a baseball bat after demanding a kebab from a takeaway that had closed. He eventually pleaded guilty to a charge possessing an offensive weapon in public.

Brearley, 48, has a history of violence including a pub incident in August 2018 in which he smashed a pint glass into the face of man, then bit into the officer’s finger who tried to arrest him. He received a three-year jail sentence.

Get more stories like this, as well as a headline round-up and all of the breaking news updates, when you sign up to the Yorkshire Evening Post’s free emails

After his latest offending, he has been held on remand since August 25 last year. Mitigating, Mahdev Sachdev said: “He is really sorry for his actions. He recognises the harm he has caused. He is remorseful and wishes to apologise.”

Mr Sachdev said Brearley’s drug addiction had led to much of his previous offending. He said that his mental health had deteriorated in recent months resulting him being placed on suicide watch, and he has been assaulted several times while in custody.

Judge Mushtaq Khokhar jailed him for 28 months and said: “You are getting on a bit, it’s about time you started behaving. The first thing you should seek is assistance from the probation service to address you drink problem and other problems., so you can keep yourself out of trouble.”

Due to the conviction of the sex offence, he was put on the sex offender register for the next seven years.