Ex-restaurant boss in park assault ordered to register as sex offender
A former restaurant boss from West Bromwich who sexually assaulted a young woman after taking her to a nearby park has been ordered to register as a sex offender for five years.
The judge, who said his hands were tied over what he could do with Mohammed Mannan, also imposed a supervision order for two years.
Mannan, age 39, of Bernard Street, West Bromwich, had denied sexually assaulting his victim by penetration, but a jury at Warwick Crown Court found he had done so.
Steven Bailey, prosecuting, said that in late 2013 the young woman had a couple of drinks at home before going to a night club in Leamington Spa, hoping to meet up with her boyfriend.
Unable to find him, she had another drink in the club before going outside for a breath of air and sitting down outside a tanning salon opposite the club.
At that time Mannan was locking up his nearby restaurant, Kismet, which has now closed down, and went over to speak to her.
Mr Bailey She ‘tried to fend Mannan off verbally,’ telling him she was alright and to leave her alone, ‘but he would not take no for an answer.’
Mannan went and got his car, put the young woman, whom Mr Bailey described as being ‘drunk and incapable,’ into it and drove her to a park on the other side of the river.
In the park he sexually assaulted her before leaving her on a park bench where she had passed out.
Hysterical
CCTV showed him driving away from the scene.
Other cameras then picked up his victim staggering up Bedford Street and then down the Parade back to Spencer Street where she was seen to be hysterical.
The police were called. When Mannan was traced and arrested he claimed she had willingly got into his car.
At a trial in 2014 a jury was unable to reach a verdict and the case was adjourned for a retrial, but by the time it was due to take place Mannan had become mentally unfit to stand trial.
So in December 2018, a jury had to decide if he ‘did the act alleged,’ rather than bring in a guilty or not guilty verdict.
They found he had, and the case was then adjourned for reports to be prepared on how Mannan should be dealt with under the Mental Health Act – with the only options being detention under a hospital order, supervision or an absolute discharge.
Imposing a supervision order, to be supervised by the Probation Service, Judge Cooke told Mannan: “It has taken us a long time to get here, much of that delay not your fault.
“I am at last making a disposal in respect of acts you did as long ago as 2013 when you took advantage of a heavily intoxicated young woman to impose yourself on her, acts of intimacy she was in no fit state to consent to.
“There are limited disposals available. You have not been convicted of these offences, you have instead been found to have done the acts.”
Of the order itself, he warned Mannan: “No-one wants you to fail, but if you breach the terms of the order, you and I will meet again.”
