EDMONTON -- A inline skating city man who groped a pregnant woman walking with her toddler and threatened to stab her if she didn't stop screaming was let out on probation yesterday.

Michael Matthew Campbell, 21, was handed a six-month jail term on his guilty pleas to sexual assault and uttering a death threat, however the sentence has already been served by the 3 1/2 months he spent in pretrial custody.

Campbell was also placed on probation for two years with conditions that he take sexual offender relapse programming and get counselling for anger management.

He must also abide by a daily 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and not be alone with anyone under the age of 16.

Campbell, who has been diagnosed as having depression, stood up in court yesterday and said he knew what he had done was "wrong" and accepted that he needs help.

Court heard earlier that Campbell, while on inline skates, had confronted a 20-year-old woman who was nine months' pregnant as she was walking with her one-and-a-half-year-old son to their northeast Edmonton home from a nearby Mac's store about 11:40 p.m. on June 4, 2008.

As the woman reached the exterior stairway to her home, Campbell uttered an obscene statement, causing her to become fearful and begin screaming she was pregnant.

Campbell then told the woman to "shut up and stop screaming or he would stab her," court heard.

He then pushed her shoulder, forcing her against a wall, and grabbed one of her breasts.

The young mother then successfully kicked Campbell in the groin and ran with her son to a neighbour's residence and called 911.

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Stephen Hillier noted the woman's actions helped minimize what possibly could have happened.

Campbell, who has a criminal record that includes a conviction for indecent exposure to a young person in 2006, was also ordered to submit a DNA sample for the national DNA databank and placed on the national sex offender registry for 20 years.

TONY.BLAIS@SUNMEDIA.CA