A MAN has appeared in court accused of sexually assaulting a stroke victim and then assaulting her partner.

Ross Colbourne made persistent sexual advances to the stroke victim in her home in October last year, Chelmsford Crown Court was told.

Stephen Rose, prosecuting, told the court Colbourne turned up at the victim’s door unannounced asking for a cigarette.

He said: “She was having a doze on her sofa, she had a bath and was dressed in her nightgown when she heard a knock at the door.

“At the time Colbourne was a stranger to her. It seems there was something of a conversation on the doorstep.”

The victim left the door open and Colbourne followed her inside, said Mr Rose.

He said at that point the conversation started to get “sinister”.

He said: “He asked if he could give her a hug which she declined.

“He started talking about massage and she wasn’t interested.”

Her partner, who had been drinking beforehand, had gone out to visit a friend and when he came back he saw Colbourne in the house.

He asked Colbourne to leave and he refused.

He had allegedly been sitting on the sofa, touching the victim’s waist, backside and left leg. Mr Rose said the incident got violent when Colbourne got into an argument with the woman’s partner and punched him twice in the face.

The woman gave evidence in court yesterday, She said she and her partner had spent the evening together and he had gone out to visit a mutual friend.

She was not expecting visitors but heard a knock on the door at about 11.30pm.

She said: “I had never seen him before, I didn’t know his name.

“He asked me if I had a Rizla.”

He told her he was a relative of a neighbour.

She added: “He seemed pretty genuine, I had no reason to disbelieve him.

“I didn’t invite him in, I pushed the front door and went back into the house but it didn’t close properly.

“I bent down to pick something up and when I turned around he was standing behind me.

“I felt scared. He sat himself down on my sofa and said he had seen me around and that he fancied me.

“He asked me for a kiss and I said no.”

Colbourne, 28, of Valley Road, Dovercourt, was arrested that night.

He denies a charge of sexual assault against her and a charge of assault by beating against the woman’s partner.

When police questioned him he claimed he was acting in self-defence, the court was told.

He told police the woman’s partner had threatened him with a knife and the reason he had gone round to the house was he had heard shouting from inside.

The trial continues.