Girl stranded on last bus sexually assaulted by a driver who offered her lift home

A bus driver sexually assaulted a teenager who had fallen asleep on the last service home. Damien Doyle, 48, of Birchwood Way, Kirby, offered the girl, 16, a lift when she was stranded at the depot late at night with no money.

But he locked the girl in his car and assaulted her, telling the terrified youngster: "I bet you get really horny when you're drunk."

A trial at Liverpool Crown Court heard the girl had taken a bus in Liverpool late at night but fell asleep during the journey in September 2022 and missed her stop. She woke up in the depot to find no more services running that day.

Steven Ball, prosecuting, told the court she had no cash with her and didn't want to ring her parents to pick her up because she was "worried they would be mad".

The girl approached Doyle for help as he walked to his car at the end of his shift. He offered her a lift home, telling her he had a daughter the same age and would "hate her to be in that situation".

Once inside the car, the Armed Forces veteran put his hand on top of hers and said, "Oh my god, you're freezing. I'll warm you up," the Liverpool Echo reports.

Doyle, a bus driver with 15 years experience, asked her if she had a boyfriend, complimented the girl and "intertwined hands" with her. He told her: "I bet you get really horny when you're drunk. I could take us to the beach right now."

The pervert then locked his car doors, put his hand on her leg and began stroking her inner thigh while driving after changing direction towards Kirkby.

The quick-thinking teenager told him there had been a "change of plan" and said her friend would pick her up. Doyle let her out of the car and she hid in a bush before she was collected.

In a statement read in court on her behalf, the youngster said: "I felt so vulnerable in that moment with someone I thought I could trust. When he suggested going to the beach, my heart sank. I started to think of the stories of horrible things happening to girls, where they sometimes end up dead.

"The feeling of his hand rubbing the inside of my thigh is a feeling I don't think I'll forget. He has no empathy for how I felt that night, no guilt for his actions and no self-awareness for his inappropriate behaviour."

Doyle was previously convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in 1996 and 2008, but none for sexual offences.

Carmel Wilde, defending, told the court: "He does deny the offence. His partner sits at the back of the court and has been here throughout the proceedings. She knows a better side to him and stands by him.

"He has not been in trouble for some time. There has been nothing since 2008. He served in the Armed Forces previously with an exemplary record. He has always been at work and is hard-working.

"It was opportunistic offending. It was not something he had gone out seeking, looking for young girls. The complainant, very eloquently, said she did not want this man to go to prison. She wanted to understand why somebody would do this."

Doyle was found guilty of one count of sexual assault by a jury. He was jailed for two years and told to sign the sex offenders' register for 10 years.

Sentencing, Judge David Swinnerton said: "I accept what happened was not planned in advance, but you did seek to take the opportunity. That was predatory in my view.

"There are two reasons that she got in the car with you. One was because you were a bus driver and she trusted you because you were in a public position.

"The other reason was because you told her you had a daughter of her age and would hate your daughter to be in that situation, therefore you would not leave her stranded. She was, not surprisingly, terrified."

Doyle's partner said "stay strong" to him from the public gallery as he was led to the cells.