A disgraced former teacher has been found guilty of groping a sleeping woman on a train - but has been spared an immediate jail sentence.

Chris McKenna denied any sexual motive in touching the passenger and claimed he was only trying to help her.

But a jury convicted him today of one offence of sexual assault. He was acquitted of a second charge of sexual assault.

The single 31-year-old film animator, who taught at Sittingbourne Community College, was sentenced to nine months imprisonment suspended for 18 months and will have to complete 125 hours unpaid work.

He was ordered to pay the victim £500 compensation within 14 days, which a judge said was “nothing like the amount she is entitled to”.

He added that should she refuse the sum, McKenna could put it towards the £1,400 prosecution costs he is to pay.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the woman - said in court to be 19 at the time of the offence but described as aged 21 by police - had fallen asleep on the train from London to Kent in December 2014 after drinking at a Christmas party.

Judge Jeremy Carey told him: “There are aspects of this case which make it serious as you took advantage of a vulnerable woman in the dead of night on a train where she was defenceless by reference to her condition and there was no one there at the time.

“Your furtive looking around demonstrated a wish not to be seen by anyone.”

It was the second time McKenna stood trial and the woman had to give evidence. At the first trial, when there was only one count of sexual assault, the jury could not reach a verdict.

The victim claimed she woke up after missing her stop to find a man’s hand between her legs, touching her over her jeans.

CCTV footage showed McKenna moving to sit next to her before molesting her.

“I woke up,” she said. “My reaction was shock.”

She got off the train at Faversham and called her father and boyfriend. A rail worker called the police. CCTV stills were circulated in the media and McKenna came forward.

"You took advantage of a vulnerable woman in the dead of night on a train where she was defenceless" - Judge Jeremy Carey, to McKenna

The jury, reduced to 10 because of illness, found that he touched her leg under the table but not of putting his hand between her legs.

McKenna, formerly of Morello Close, Teynham, now living in London, denied both charges.

Bernard Eaton, defending, said McKenna had not targeted the woman and it was “something which developed”.

Judge Carey said the victim had “really been through the mill”. The offence had an appalling effect on a young girl, he added.

The judge told McKenna: “You took advantage of her, as plainly demonstrated on CCTV footage, by moving up to her and seeing her there as someone you could touch, and did touch.

“You have been found not guilty of the much more serious allegation.”

Judge Carey said there was abundant mitigation. McKenna, he said, was “a somewhat diffident young man by nature and shy with, until now, an impeccable record”.

He continued: “You have lost your good name, and in your case I suspect that will be a very heavy burden to bear. I am not going to send you to prison, not out of mercy.

“There would be many who would say this level of sexual assault, touching a woman on the thighs, ought to be marked by an immediate custodial sentence.

“So it would, were it not for the powerful mitigation available to you. I am just persuaded a more constructive sentence, both for society and you, and indeed the victim, in one respect a sensible and appropriate option.”

The judge said the anxiety, distress and ongoing trauma the victim suffered was not to be measured by the amount of compensation awarded.”

He told jurors: “It has had a life-changing effect for the victim. It is a verdict I well understand. The defendant has to pick up the pieces, as does (the woman).”

McKenna’s name will appear on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years. He will have to attend 20 sessions of a rehabilitation requirement.