A 32-year-old “prowler” sexually assaulted three schoolgirls and exposed himself to other groups of people during a short spell of offending in Derby city centre. Derby Crown Court heard how Muftah Mohammed walked up to each of his three young victims and grabbed their backsides or breasts before moving on.
The defendant, who lives in the city centre, walked into a bank and dropped his trousers exposing himself to the staff and customers there. Now he has been jailed for his “disgusting” offending but is likely to be back on the streets within days as he has served most of that time in jail on remand.
Jailing him for 15 months, Recorder Mary Prior KC said: “None of your victims should have been subjected to any kind of sexual assault in the middle of the day in Derby city centre. Each of them was left suffering upset and distress and will have been impacted in their ability to do what young 16-year-old girls should be able to do, which is to walk around without fear of being attacked by a complete stranger.”
Steve Gosnell, prosecuting, said all of the incidents took place on the afternoon of May 24 when the city centre was busy with shoppers. He said Mohammed first walked into the foyer of a bank on east Street, dropped his trousers and exposed himself to the workers and customers in there before walking out.
The prosecutor said: “This was prowling behaviour if I can put it that way. This is not a case where he was standing in a doorway waiting for people, he was approaching groups. He walked around the city centre and cathedral area approaching groups of people including school girls in their uniforms.
“He slapped one 16-year-old to her bum and said to her ‘touch my ****’ then moved on. He approached a second 16-year-old, walked straight up to her and grabbed her left breast and then walked away.
“He then headed straight to a third group of schoolgirls, approached another 16-year-old, stroked his hand across her breasts and tried to pull at her shirt.
“After that he exposed himself to the group and said ‘have a look at this, do you want some?’.” Mr Gosnell said none of the three girls he touched wanted to give victim impact statements but members of the group of girls he exposed himself to said they felt “disgusted and discomforted” by what they saw.
Mohammed, of Chapel Street, pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault and two counts of indecent exposure. He has 11 previous court appearances for 22 offences, but nothing of a sexual nature and was assisted at this week’s hearing by a North African Arabic interpreter.
Lesley Pidcock, mitigating, said her client had been drinking alcohol and taking drugs on the day of the offences and has mental health issues. She said: “He is sorry, he is remorseful and he does regret his actions.
“Let’s put it plainly, it was not normal behaviour in inverted commas, and it is clear he has not behaved in this way before.”
As well as the jail term, the judge ordered the defendant to sign on the sex offender register for 10 years and handed him a 10-year sexual harm prevention order. As he has already served the equivalent of a 14-month sentence on remand, Mohammed is likely to be released in the next month where he will serve the remainder of the sentence on licence in the UK due to his immigration status.