A pervert groped a 10-year-old girl as she chose a packet of crisps in a newsagents.
Abdul Gani, 32, of Langsdale Street, Everton, groped the girl as she was in Jim’s News in Fountains Road, Kirkdale with her nine-year-old cousin. The girls were stood selecting packets of crisps when the pervert walked past and touched her bottom.
Olivia Beesley, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, August 1 how Gani turned around to wink and smile at the girl.
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Ms Beesley said: "When she approached the till he was again nearby. After paying for the items she walked past him and he again felt her bottom in a deliberate way. At this point she ran out of the shop before returning for her cousin who was unaware of what had happened.”
The victim went home and told her uncle what happened and he went to the shop asking to see CCTV footage. Shop staff pointed out where the culprit, who did not work at the premises, was believed to be.
The police were called "and they found Gani unconscious outside his address having been assaulted", Ms Beesley said.
The defendant, who is from the Sudan, was interviewed on May 7 and claimed he had been at home at the time of the incident with two other people. He denied the person shown on CCTV footage from the shop was him.
Gani, was convicted of sexually assaulting the child by touching after a magistrates court trial but his case was sent to Liverpool Crown Court because of the seriousness of the offence. On the day of the trial, Gani refused to leave his prison cell to appear via video link and he has also failed to engage with the Probation Service for the preparation of a pre-sentence report.
He was not legally represented, having sacked his lawyer during his trial, but Judge Stuart Driver, QC, said that given his pattern of non-engagement it was in the interests of justice to proceed to sentence. Gani has no previous convictions and only one caution for being drunk and disorderly.
Sentencing him in his absence the judge said: "I have concluded he is a dangerous offender. The finding of the probation report is that he poses a high risk of harm to children and a high risk of committing further sexual offending.”
Jailing him for ten months Judge Driver said that he could not make an extended determinate sentence as Gani has no previous qualifying offences and the appropriate sentence would not be more than four years. He said the case involved persistence and was aggravated by the impact on the victim and the fact it was committed in the presence of her young cousin.
Judge Driver ordered him to sign the Sex Offenders Register for ten years and imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and a restraining order, both also to last ten years.
In an impact statement from the girl’s granddad, he told how she was so frightened that she had run off from the shop, initially leaving her cousin behind.
He said that she had been “uncontrollably upset” that day and would not speak about it for a few days. She had previously been confident but now always wants to be with someone when she goes out.
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