A SEX attacker who assaulted a woman while she was asleep in bed with

her five-year-old daughter was jailed for seven years yesterday.

The girl pleaded with Michael Innes to leave her mother alone, but he

tried to persuade her to go back to sleep by promising to buy her

sweets.

Innes, 30, described as a prisoner, who has previously been sentenced

to five years for rape, admitted indecently assaulting the woman at her

Edinburgh home in September 1991. He also pleaded guilty to a breach of

the Bail Act by failing to turn up for trial in December last year.

Lord Milligan heard at the High Court in Edinburgh that the

26-year-old victim of the attack managed to escape from the bedroom with

her daughter and grabbed a potato knife before ordering Innes out of the

house.

She had been awakened by the accused, who was naked, committing an

indecent act. She needed medication for 18 months after the assault.

Mr James Reilly, defence counsel, told the court that his client had a

long-standing personality disorder, although psychiatrists had concluded

that there was no specific reason at this stage to regard him as a

continuing danger to women and children.

Lord Milligan told Innes that he had committed a very serious indecent

assault for which there was an apparent lack of remorse. The attack was

aggravated by the fact that it had taken place in the middle of the

night after the accused had entered the victim's home through an

upstairs window.

He jailed Innes for six years for the assault and sentenced him to a

further 15 months for his failure to appear at the earlier hearing,

which had caused the postponement of the trial when young children were

due to give evidence.