From the Daily Mail
Chaudhry Zaman had forcibly held the 12-year-old girl’s hand while she was walking home from school in Slough, Berkshire, then kissed her.
He told jurors he had been encouraging the girl to cover her head and telling her how she could do so.
The girl said her father now had to pick her up from school and she feels anxious during the school run.
Zaman, who was assisted by a Punjabi interpreter in court, was spared jail, in part due to his age.
Judge Amjad Nawaz, describing the incident, told Zaman: ‘CCTV shows you holding her hand. She says she did not want to, her hand was forcibly held. You were seen sitting on a bench with her and that is where she said that you kissed her on her lips.’
Ian Wright, prosecuting, said: ‘The defendant asked the child to be friends with him, asked her if she loved him and told her to keep it a secret.’ He informed the court that the defendant was in the UK lawfully.
The girl told Reading crown court that in the weeks following the incident she had lost some of her friendships.
Zaman, who lives in Berkshire, had denied one offence of sexually assaulting a girl under 13 by touching but was convicted by a jury on October 24 last year.
Paul Douglass, defending, told Judge Nawaz that a pre-sentence report had recommended Zaman receive a community order.
Judge Nawaz decided not to jail Zaman, agreeing with the author of the pre-sentence report that the defendant’s risk could be ‘managed in the community’.
He told the defendant: ‘The victim has lost her self-esteem, lost her confidence and lost her friends and that is all down to your actions, because she had to speak up about what had happened to her. That has caused a breakup of friendships which she regrets.’ Poor child; but she did the right thing. Whatever the ‘community’ older men, men of any age, interfering with little girls is wrong.
Judge Nawaz sentenced Zaman to nine months’ imprisonment, suspended for 18 months; with a requirement to do 80 hours of unpaid work in the community; a restraining order for five years which prohibited him from going within 200 metres of the girl’s school; and he was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
I note that comments on social media explain how members of the public, who do not need to have a connection to the parties can petition the Attorney General to review a sentence that is too lenient. Here. This offence, sexual in nature, against a child, putting the victim in fear of violence, sentenced at the Crown Court is covered by the regulations
