David Gould, 61, of Diamond Crescent, Swindon, Wiltshire had a loose connection with the girl and invited her over to his home, where he complimented her on her looks before molesting her.
At Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court he pleaded guilty to one count of sexually assaulting the teenager at his then south-west London address in Spring, 2011.
The Recorder of Richmond-upon-Thames Judge Peter Lodder KC told Gould: “You took advantage by inviting her over, plying her with alcohol and sexually assaulting her.
“You were thirty-one years older than her and had separated from your wife and you told her she looked beautiful.
“You invited her to come around and visit you and asked her if she would like a drink and poured her a very large vodka, without much lemonade.
“She did not have much experience of drinking and you knew exactly what you were up to.
“You put your hand inside her top and bra. She was uncomfortable and told you so.”
Gould received eighteen months imprisonment, suspended for two years and must complete 280 hours community service.
He was ordered to also complete twenty-seven days of a rehabilitation activity requirement, sign the sex offenders register and obey a fifteen-year sexual harm prevention order.
“For many, many, many years she has had to deal with your denials and only recently has had the small consolation of your guilty plea.
“As she put it in her victim impact statement her childhood ended at the age of sixteen years-old.
“That is what you have done to blight that young girl’s life to satisfy your own desires,” the judge told Gould. “I am very tempted to send you to prison and you can consider yourself very lucky.”
Gould was charged for this offence after an investigation into separate allegations of sexually abusing a nine year-old girl in 2018.
He was eventually cleared in relation to that victim, but the sixteen year-old complainant - now many years older - gave a video-recorded interview to police on March 30, 2023.
Earlier, prosecutor Ravi Dogra told the court that Gould gave the teen a large vodka after she told him the most she usually drank was a small lager shandy.
“He was saying things about her body, her breasts and how she looked. He put his hand inside her top and inside her bra.”
In her victim impact statement the complainant said: “This incident has affected my life and still ripples through everything I do today.
“His compliments about my body now disgust me. I was only a child.”
Addressing Gould directly she told him: “You took advantage and plied me with alcohol to take advantage of me.
“I trusted you and the things you did that day have had an everlasting effect on me.”
Gould’s lawyer Nargees Choudhury told the court the defendant’s wife had left him in 2008 - three years before the offence - taking their two children with her.
“He was depressed, suffered panic attacks, had to take time off work and his mental health was at an all-time low.
“He will never forgive himself for what he did. He is absolutely sickened by what he did.”
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