A HOUSING officer faces the sack after being found guilty of sexually touching a woman in a kebab shop in Worcester.

Family members and friends sobbed as magistrates decided Philip Barnfield, aged 30, had run his finger between the victim's buttocks after making a gesture with a sexual undertone and "pathetic" comments.

The incident, in the early hours of Saturday, September 23, was captured on the shop's CCTV system and magistrates watched the recording which showed Barnfield licking his middle finger while standing behind the woman.

The victim, speaking from behind a screen, told Worcester Magistrates Court she had had five pints of Guinness and was merry but lucid.

She said Barnfield had approached her and a friend at Jewell nightclub and asked if they were lesbians. The two later went to Worcester Kebab Shop in Shaw Street where they saw Barnfield, of Great Oaty Gardens, Lyppard Hanford, Worcester.

She said: "I heard somebody say, Look, there's the lesbians' and I felt somebody run their finger between the cheeks of my bottom from base to top."

Barnfield admitted "showing off" making remarks but denied touching the woman sexually. He said: "It was pathetic and stupid and I was a prat."

He told the court he had been joking and there had been nothing sexual meant by his actions. The court heard he worked with vulnerable women and would now lose his job.

Magistrates gave him a conditional discharge for two years, ordered him to pay £100 compensation and £400 costs and told him to sign the sex offenders register for two years.