for what a judge called a "vicious'' sex attack on a woman jogger.

Floyd Bradshaw, 45, told Magistrate the Wor. Cheryl-Ann Mapp he committed the offence because he had been having marriage problems.

Magistrates' Court heard the Sandys Parish man attacked the woman, 29, in broad daylight while she was running on Somerset Long Bay this summer.

He knocked her to the ground and thrust his hands inside her shorts while covering her mouth and threatening to stab her if she did not cooperate.

She managed to flee after biting Bradshaw, who had no knife.

"Your Honour, I just ask for a little leniency,'' he said before sentencing.

"I'm sorry for what I done. I know it was wrong.'' Mrs. Mapp asked him if he knew why he attacked her, since social and psychiatric reports ordered on him had failed to shed any light.

"I just had family problems,'' he said.

Despite submissions for a suspended prison term, if any, from defence lawyer Mr. Archie Warner, Mrs. Mapp felt "immediate incarceration was warranted''.

Mr. Warner said Bradshaw's guilty plea saved the woman the embarrassment of having to testify.

Any incarceration would impact on his wife and children. And he would lose the Public Works job he had held down for 20 years.

Mr. Warner produced a letter of support from Bradshaw's church, the First Church of God. And he said it had been a "one-off situation''.

He added, "Though attacks against women cannot be condoned, each and every case must looked at in its own individual setting and background.'' But Mrs. Mapp said, "It's ridiculous that women have to be put to this abuse at the hands of other people. It would not happen to a man why should it happen to a woman? The Court must be seen to exercise a very firm hand in these cases.'' Crown counsel Mr. Stephen Harrison had said, "This was a serious offence. A woman who goes about her daily business in a public place is assaulted and taken to the ground and further assaulted. In fact, it is an all-to-common episode in Bermuda today.'' Mrs. Mapp noted social and medical workers had found nothing psychiatrically wrong with the man, though he was illiterate and of below average intelligence.

The woman he attacked would "no longer be able to enjoy the simple pleasures'' of her leisure activities, she said.

"What you did to that young lady you would not want to happen to your wife or daughters if you have any -- or any member of your church or your colleagues...'' she said. "It was an extremely vicious attack on a young lady by any stretch of the imagination.'' Mrs. Mapp said Bradshaw's domestic problems could not be seen as mitigating factors.

The court heard he has one past conviction of a similar nature, an indecent assault 21 years ago.