A 28-year-old man who carried out a sex attack on a teenage girl at a Kidderminster leisure centre has been given a suspended jail sentence.

Robert Williams was working at Forest Glades Leisure Centre in Kidderminster when he became friendly with the 17-year-old over a period of some months, Christopher Lester, prosecuting, told Worcester Crown Court.

He was 10 years older and she started to keep more of a distance from him, Mr Lester said, then, on September 18, 2011, he grabbed her in a kitchen and pushed her against a wall.

She slid to the floor as he pulled down her shorts and tried to pull down her underwear and she shouted and screamed "no." She crawled away from him as they were interrupted by members of staff and she got away. An internal investigation followed at the leisure centre and Williams was arrested.

Abigail Nixon, defending, said Williams, of Broom Crescent, Kidderminster, was later beaten up after the girl told her boyfriend what had happened.

She said Williams was on the autistic spectrum and had difficulty with the boundaries in friendship.

"He did not understand 'no' meant 'no' and he carried on," she said. "For him, the lines in sexual relationships are blurred."

She said a number of references had described him as a thoughtful and kind person and he was now a full-time carer for his stepfather, who had Parkinson's.

Judge Michael Cullum said the case dated back almost two and a half years, largely because Williams had been unable to accept he had committed a crime and had only pleaded guilty on the day a trial was due to start. He said Williams had effectively picked the girl up and carried her into a room to carry out the attack and she had been badly affected by the incident.

He gave Williams an eight-month sentence suspended for two years with supervision. He will also have to attend a community sex offenders group work programme and sign the sex offenders register for seven years.

He was ordered to pay £250 compensation and £250 costs.