Twenty-six-year-old Amir Mohammed, an asylum seeker from Central African Republic (CAR), was escorted by a guard into Sheffield’s crown court dock for sentencing. Coincidentally, his case had been squeezed in between the sentencings of rioters who had attacked a hotel for asylum seekers.
A slight man, Mohammed was dressed in a prisoner’s grey jogging pants and a matching sweatshirt. He appeared nervous as he faced the court through a French translator. The judge who would decide his fate asked if he understood what was happening.
Mohammed replied that he spoke Arabic but he could understand enough French to follow what was being said.
The prosecuting barrister calmly laid out the case in arid detail. No emotion, just fact after disturbing fact. Mohammed mostly looked down but occasionally his eyes darted upwards to observe who was looking at him.
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Following a trial, he had been convicted of three counts of sexual assault and one of harassment. There were four victims, all adolescent girls aged between 13 and 16. The judge reminded the court they were entitled to lifelong anonymity.
Mohammed met the first girl in a park in a Yorkshire town in 2021. She was aged 13 and was walking alone. He began to walk alongside her, trying to engage her in conversation. He said she was “gorgeous”. Suddenly he groped her breast over her clothing.
“Why are you touching my effing boob, you paedo?” the girl shouted, according to the statement she gave police. Mohammed followed her out of the park but she got away. The victim later picked him out of a police line-up. He was under investigation for this offence when he committed the others.
Another teenage victim had been walking through a Yorkshire town on her way back to her grandmother’s house when Mohammed approached her. Uninvited, he walked alongside her. She humoured him in conversation but he soon turned “weird”. He asked if she had a boyfriend. He said he would love to have her as his girlfriend. He followed her in and out of a shop. They kept walking.
He asked for her number but she said she couldn’t remember it. She said her grandmother checked her phone anyway. As they neared her grandmother’s house, he grabbed her in an embrace and tried to kiss her on the lips. She ducked her head and his kiss landed on her nose.
He encountered another teenage victim in yet another Yorkshire park. She was with a friend. Mohammed hung around them both. The victim’s friend left to go to the shops but Mohammed held the victim back from joining her by grabbing her waist. He groped her breasts over her clothing.
A fourth victim had been sitting on a park bench near her school. He sat down beside her and told her he needed help. He said he was from Africa and had no friends or family here. He said he was lonely and wanted her to be his girlfriend. He put his phone in her lap and made her put her number in. Frightened, she did as she was told. He said he loved her. As she stood up to get away, she noticed his trousers were undone. For days, he repeatedly called and texted her.
His defence barrister said he had left CAR when he was eight and lived “in various European countries”. He did not want to return to his home country due to “government corruption”. He had been in Britain for five years and was 23 at the time of the first offence in 2021. The final offence was in 2023.
She said he had come to Britain intending to “start a family” but he accepted his approaches in that regard had been wrong. The judge asked the barrister if she was seriously advancing the argument that he had groped girls’ breasts as part of an attempt to find a partner with whom to start a family.
The defence barrister handed in a psychiatrist’s report that found Mohammed was not mentally unwell but that he was “culturally incongruent”.
“You mean he just doesn’t know the ways of this country?” asked the judge
He said any man who had been in Britain for five years must have known that he is not allowed to grope the breasts of teenage girls he had just met.
He sentenced Mohammed to 3½ years in prison. He had already spent a year in prison on remand. He also barred him from contacting any of the victims. He was also not allowed any unsupervised contact with girls under the age of 16 for 10 years, unless arranged by a social worker.
“It is up to the [home secretary] whether or not to deport you back to the CAR after your sentence,” said the judge. “Now, take him down.”