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Wolverhampton predator jailed for sex attack on teenage girls

A sexual predator who picked up two young girls in a city centre and sexually assaulted them has been jailed for more than three years.

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The case was heard at Wolverhampton Crown Court

Adrian Dasent, from Wolverhampton, met the 15-year-olds on a night out in Birmingham and plied them with alcohol before taking them to a hotel, a court heard.

When the 44-year-old failed to book a room, he assaulted the girls in the foyer area while they tried to sleep, touching them intimately under their clothing, it was said.

The attack badly affected both victims, one describing it as “the worst night of my life”, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

After buying drinks for the teenagers and giving them cigarettes, Dasent, an unemployed car salesman, hired a taxi on the pretext of taking them home but instead tried to get them into a number of hotels, said Ms Sophie Murray, prosecuting.

At a hotel on the Hagley Road, he failed to make a booking but the receptionist allowed them to remain in the foyer area where the assaults took place.

The girls indicted they were uncomfortable with the touching by shifting their bodies to try and stop the contact.

Dasent later claimed he had gone to the hotels because he had not wanted to see them sleeping rough, the court heard.

In an impact statement, one of the victims said she had dropped out of her college course as a result of the assault.

Describing it as “the worst night of my life”, she said she was now on tablets for anxiety.

Her friend said the experience had badly affected her relationships with men and she had since started self-harming.

The court heard that Dasent claimed the girls had told him they were 17 or 18.

Ms Saleema Mahmood, defending, argued that some of his issues were related to drink and drugs and that he had since tried to change his lifestyle.

It had been almost a year since he had last taken drugs, she added.

Judge Anjad Nawaz described the victims as “clearly vulnerable” girls, one of whom had already been drinking.

“You plied them with further alcohol and cigarettes – there was an element of grooming,” he said.

Dasent, of Coleman Street, Whitmore Reans, pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual assault.

He was jailed for three years and one month and made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.

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