A MAN has been warned he faces a jail term “measured in years” after he was convicted of trying to rape a pub barmaid at closing time.
Maurice Anthony Ferriter, 40, who pleaded not guilty, claimed he went behind he bar of the Flintshire pub in search of the takings.
But a jury at Mold Crown Court, sitting in Chester, convicted him of attempting to rape the barmaid by a majority of 11 to one after a retirement of three hours and 45 minutes.
He was remanded in custody pending sentence next month and Judge Philip Hughes said an assessment needed to be carried out to see whether Ferriter should be regarded as a dangerous offender.
In any event the prison sentence he would receive would be measured in years the judge told the court yesterday.
The barmaid had told the jury how she struggled with him but ended up on the floor behind the bar.
She said the attacker, who had a “horrible, evil look on his face”, lay on top of her tugging at her trousers.
Ferriter claimed the only time he tugged at her trousers was to try to stop her escaping.
He claimed he had no sexual intentions but the jury rejected his story.
Ferriter, who said he was “sofa surfing” at the time and living in Mold, admitted the theft of some optic bottles and attempted theft of money from the till.
Prosecutor Mark Connor told the jury the woman was working alone at the end of the evening one night in December 2010 at a pub in the Flintshire area and was ready to lock up.
Ferriter was the only customer left, he asked her if she was waiting for him, and she said that when he had finished then she would lock up.
He asked if he could have a cigarette outside and then finish off his drink, and she agreed. But when he returned she noticed he had closed the pub door and she went to open it.
He then went behind the bar and Mr Connor said there was a short but violent struggle when he forced her to the floor and got on top of her.
The prosecution alleged he then tried to pull down her trousers. She put up a struggle and got up at one stage only to be pulled back down again.
The barmaid managed to struggle free and ran out of the pub and went to nearby business premises to get help.
CCTV footage of the struggle – and of Ferriter initially following her out but then returning to steal from the pub – was played to the jury.
Mr Connor claimed the theft was an afterthought and said if he had theft in mind he would have gone straight to the tills and not attacked the barmaid.
Three men ran into the premises and restrained Ferriter until the police arrived.
In evidence the woman said: “He just came at me and pushed me back.”
She was trying to push him from behind the bar, they ended up on the floor and he was tugging at her trouser leg. The woman said she had felt uneasy about the last customer in the pub, regarded him as an oddball and said he had a horrible evil look.
“I never felt fear like that before. It was horrible,” she said.
Ferriter was further remanded in custody and was warned he would now be placed on the Sex Offenders Register.