Dating-app Leeds pervert sexually assaulted woman and then laughed
Cooper admitted the assault on the day he was due to stand trial
A thug who sexually assaulted a woman he met on a dating website has been jailed.
Joe Cooper attacked the woman and then laughed, later claiming she had “brought it on herself”.
The 34-year-old was jailed at Leeds Crown Court after eventually admitting the assault on the day he was due to stand trial.
Several further offences were also admitted, including violence and criminal damage. A charge of rape was not proceeded with but has been left on file.
The court heard that Cooper, of Prospect Avenue, Bramley, met the woman online.
The woman later said she has forced to live with a “sense of embarrassment and shame”.
She said she still found herself “looking over her shoulder”.
It was heard that he has had previous issues with women, making threats.
Mitigating, Chloe Fairley said that Cooper had a “genuine desire” to address his issues.
She said he would get that help if he were to be punished in the community rather than in prison.
Ms Fairley said he had never been in trouble before, with no previous convictions, and that he was a hard-working man.
But Judge Ray Singh said that Cooper had made a comment about the woman “bringing it on herself”, then doubled down in a probation report by telling the officer is “takes two to tango”, meaning it was much her fault as his.
Judge Singh told him: “While in drink you clearly change, you are somebody who is prepared to use violence [against women].
“You have not learned. The wake-up call simply has not hit you I’m afraid.
“You carried out the most humiliating and degrading act. There was no remorse; you found it funny.”
He said the experience had been “the most horrific episode” of the woman’s life.
He jailed Cooper for 43 months and put him on the sex offender register for life.