A vicar who sexually assaulted a woman by trying to “stick his tongue down her throat” while drunk has avoided jail.

Former police officer Robert ‘Bob’ Weldon was employed at Folkestone’s Holy Trinity church at the time of the offence, with his victim forced to “squirm away” from his lurid advances.

But the 68-year-old avoided a custodial sentence at the town’s magistrates’ court on Wednesday, where the facts of the case were laid out.

Prosecutor Neil Sweeney revealed it was during a gathering last year, where alcohol had been consumed, that the victim tried walking past Weldon.

“The defendant went for a hug and gripped both [of the victim’s] arms tightly, and tried to stick his tongue down her throat,” he said.

“She then tried to get away, then eventually squirmed away from his grasp

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