A MAN who kissed and groped a blind woman who thought he was someone else in a nightclub has been told he faces jail.

    Stephen Hayes, 27, was on a night out at the Union Rooms pub in Plymouth, Britain when he began slow dancing with the woman, who has a visual impairment.

    Plymouth Crown Court heard she thought he was another man that she had met earlier that night and they began to kiss and cuddle.

    Hayes then went to touch her under her clothes and she realized her mistake and pushed him away with her knee.

    The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, later made a complaint to police and Hayes was charged with sexual assault.

    He changed his plea to guilty after earlier denying the charge of sexual assault between Aug. 1 and Aug. 4, 2013.

    Because of her condition the victim can only recognize people by their body shape and clothing rather than facial features, the court heard.

    The court heard the woman said she had kissed Hayes on the dance floor but that she had done so by mistake.

    Prosecutors claim she soon realized it was not the friend she had been with earlier, but in fact a stranger.

    Prosecutor Jo Martin said that Hayes approached the woman in the Union Rooms pub in Plymouth in Devon at about 1 a.m.

    She was on a night out with friends but says she was not drunk as she had only had a couple of glasses of wine.

    The court heard she thought Hayes was a friend she had seen earlier that evening and they danced closely and started kissing.

    Martin said that he moved to indecently touch her under her clothes and she then realized the man was not her friend.

    Martin said that he touched her sexually and she moved her knee to push him away, and added that a doorman who had seen some of what happened intervened.

    Martin said an officer visited the woman at her home a few days later and that was when she decided to make an official complaint.

    She added that Hayes later said that he did not know the woman was disabled and that he believed what happened between them was consensual.

    On Tuesday morning he pleaded guilty to indecently touching the woman without her consent.

    Judge Paul Darlow then formally directed the jury to reach a guilty verdict and warned Hayes he could be facing jail when he returns for sentencing Feb. 27.

    (SD-Agencies)