A man who was released early from prison after sexually assaulting a teenage girl on a bus has been sent back to jail for breaching the conditions of his release.

Craig Philip Teare, aged 39, breached the terms of his licence by failing to live at his probation accommodation and by possessing cocaine.

Magistrates ordered his licence to be suspended for four months, meaning he will return to prison for that period.

Teare was originally jailed in August 2024 for two years and nine months after admitting sexually assaulting a teenage girl on a bus in May 2024. The incident happened when he boarded the same bus as the victim and initially asked her if she wanted to buy cocaine.

She refused, but he then tried to kiss her, put his arm around her and placed his hand under her top and on her leg. The teenager panicked and got up, moving to the back of the bus where she asked another passenger for help by writing a message on her phone.

The pair got off the bus together in Castletown and went to a nearby pub, where the girl knew the manager and felt she would be safe. Teare followed them inside, grabbed her arm and asked her to go into the toilet with him. The manager told him to leave and called police.

Officers later arrested Teare in Ballasalla during the early hours of the following morning.

At his sentencing hearing, Deemster Graeme Cook described the attack as ‘an abhorrent display of over-sexualised behaviour on a particularly vulnerable young girl sitting on a bus going to work’.

The victim, who attended court for the hearing, said in a statement that she had been unable to speak, move or even breathe during her ordeal and that she had ‘frozen completely’. She described the incident as ‘sick, horrible and gut-wrenching’ and said she could no longer travel on a bus without suffering panic attacks.

The court heard that Teare, of Crossag Close, Ballasalla, had been under the influence of drink and cocaine at the time. His advocate said his client’s behaviour was linked to drug misuse and was ‘completely out of character’.

Teare was also ordered to serve a further three months for breaching a suspended sentence he had received shortly before the assault. He was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely and made subject to a five-year sexual harm prevention order.

After serving half his sentence, Teare was released from prison on September 25 this year and ordered to live at Tromode House, probation accommodation in Douglas. However, on October 10, a probation officer reported that he was missing from the hostel.

He later returned, and a small wrap of cocaine was found in his sock.

Defence advocate Lawrie Gelling said Teare had been attending his probation appointments and engaging with Motiv8 but had found living at Tromode House ‘difficult’. He said Teare had been expecting to move into a house, but that arrangement fell through shortly before his release.