Channel migrant who sexually assaulted teenage girl with special needs in broad daylight is jailed for 14 months
Aron Hadsh, 27, from Eritrea, who was living at a taxpayer-funded Holiday Inn near Heathrow, attacked the 19-year-old in June last year after she had been sent by her mother to pick up fruit from a food bank.
A court heard on Friday how he pursued her to a park in Fulham, west London, where he pinned her on his lap, grabbed her breasts and touched her crotch for several minutes before she escaped. She said he was laughing as she ran away.
Hadsh, who illegally entered the UK around three years ago after crossing the Channel, was caught five weeks later after the teenager spotted him while out shopping with her mother. Members of the public detained him until the police arrived.
Prosecutor Sam Barker told Isleworth Crown Court the victim has a number of learning difficulties, which means she presents as 'very childlike' and has an 'extreme vulnerability'.
Hadsh was sentenced to 14 months' imprisonment and a five-year restraining order after being convicted of one count of sexual assault and acquitted of one count of kidnapping in May this year.
Shockingly, as he has already spent nearly a year in custody, Hadsh will not spend any more time in prison, despite the judge saying he poses a 'high risk of serious harm to the public'.
Whether he will be released into the public or sent to an immigration detention centre is not known.
In a statement read out in court, the victim said: 'On the day it happened it made me feel very nervous and scared. I felt that my body shut down.'
She added: 'All my life it has been hard to make friends, and this has put me back in my own bubble. I was scared to see him again, in case he would kill me, because he was laughing after he ran off and sexually assaulted me.'
Mr Barker said the victim's mother felt 'frustrated' and 'angry' for sending her daughter to collect fruit from the food bank.
He said: 'The victim's mother finds herself on edge, which has affected her volunteering at the same food bank.'
Wearing a grey T-shirt and a beaded necklace, Hadsh showed no remorse and continued to plead his innocence from the dock during sentencing.
Judge Alastair Rolf Hammerton told him: 'I understand your conditions in prison are more challenging because English is not your first language.'
He explained that Hadsh was intoxicated at the time of the offence and said he posed 'a high risk of sexual reoffending', adding: 'Your victim was an extremely vulnerable person. She felt scared and vulnerable.'
He said the court had to proceed on the assumption Hadsh was a man of good character, given there are no criminal records available from before he entered the UK.
Mr Barker said it was impossible to know whether Hadsh, who was granted asylum before the offence, had any convictions before coming to the UK. He added: 'We haven't done the checks, because we can't.'
Hadsh was unrepresented at his sentencing after he sacked his defence counsel during the trial.
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