A MAN equipped with condoms, a knife and a ghost balaclava has been found guilty of attempted sexual offence after his victim beat him away with a set of keys.

Dean Straw grabbed the face of a woman after following her from the train station to an underpass in Bill Hill, Bracknell at around 12.20am on July 1, 2017.

Having wrestled his victim to the floor and called her a b***h he straddled the woman, who jabbed him numerous times in the face with keys lodged between her fingers until he fled.

Straw, of no fixed abode, was found on Rectory Lane, Bracknell just under an hour later by police officers, who arrested him after noticing scratches on his face and finding gloves, condoms, a balaclava and a knife on his person.

Speaking behind a screen at Reading Crown Court on December 11, the woman said: “I was yelling at him to get off me.

“He came up behind me and put his hand over my mouth. I threw my weight forward to get him off me.

“I was now on my bum and he was still holding on to my face. I wasn't letting go of my bag. It was not going to happen. I was going to struggle.”

While he admitted to two counts of actual bodily harm and robbery, Straw argued he had intended to steal the woman's bag, not sexually assault her.

Michael Roques, prosecuting, said: “He set out that evening with a balaclava, gloves and a knife in a sheath down the back of his trousers.

“So far he has a robbery kit, but we also know he has the condoms. Now he has a rape kit.”

The 27 year-old claimed he had picked up the knife from a friend who had borrowed it and wore the balaclava, which had a Call of Duty ghost symbol on the front, to keep his ears warm following an operation.

His mum had given him the condoms in preparation for a house party and the gloves had been in his coat pocket since Christmas, he said.

His victim did not report the items, which were hidden on his person aside from the balaclava, to the police.

John Simmonds, defending, argued: “What about this knife, why not pull it out or say I have got a knife? I am not suggesting for a moment that by the time I have finished addressing you that you will have any degree of sympathy for him what so ever.

“But we do not try cases on sympathy. We are here to try the case on the evidence. He did not get the chance to use the condoms because he was not intending to rape.

“How many young men walk around with condoms on them?”

Unconvinced by the explanation, a jury of eight men and four women took just over an hour to return a unanimous guilty verdict on December 13 for committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence.

Dean Straw will be sentenced at a later date.