Former Leamington restaurant boss is given a supervision order after forcing a young woman into a car and sexually assaulting her in a park

A judge whose hands were tied over what he could do with Mohammed Mannan also imposed a supervision order for two years.

Mannan (39) of Bernard Street, West Bromwich, had denied sexually assaulting his victim by penetration, but a jury at Warwick Crown Court found he had done so.

Prosecutor Steven Bailey said that in late 2013 a young woman had a couple of drinks at home before going to a night club in Leamington, hoping to meet up with her boyfriend.

Unable to find him, she had another drink in the club before going outside for a breath of air and sitting down outside a tanning salon opposite the club in Spencer Street.

At that time Mannan was locking up his nearby restaurant, Kismet, which has now closed down, and went over to speak to her.

She ‘tried to fend him off verbally,’ telling him she was alright and to leave her alone, ‘but he would not take no for an answer.’

Mannan went and got his car, put the young woman into it and drove her to a park on the other side of the river.

In the park, ‘he sexually assaulted her before leaving her on a park bench where she had passed out, and CCTV showed him driving away from the scene.

Other cameras then picked up his victim staggering up Bedford Street and then down the Parade back to Spencer Street where she was seen to be hysterical, and the police were called.

When Mannan was traced and arrested he accepted he had been attracted to her, and said he had approached her and asked her if she wanted to go to a different club.

He claimed she had willingly got into his car, and that it was she who had initiated sexual contact before being sick on his trousers – but Mr Bailey pointed out that tests on his trousers showed no trace of that.

At a trial in 2014 a jury was unable to reach a verdict and the case was adjourned for a retrial, but by the time it was due to take place Mannan had become mentally unfit to stand trial.

So in December 2018 a jury had to decide if he ‘did the act alleged,’ rather than bring in a guilty or not guilty verdict.

They found he had, and the case was then adjourned for reports to be prepared on how Mannan should be dealt with under the Mental Health Act – with the only options being detention under a hospital order, supervision, or an absolute discharge.

But two psychiatrists who then examined him concluded that his mental health had improved to the extent that he was fit to stand trial in the normal way.

Following an adjournment for that to be considered, Mr Bailey told Judge Peter Cooke the victim had been consulted about whether she was prepared to give evidence yet again.

“It would be the fourth time she had done so, and she says she would not be willing to do that.”

Mr Bailey said that meant there was no option other than for Mannan, who had a previous conviction for indecent assault 20 years ago, to still be dealt with under the Mental Health Act.

Because he no longer needed treatment, he could not be made subject to a hospital order, which left the judge with only two alternatives – a supervision order or an absolute discharge.

Imposing a supervision order, to be supervised by the Probation Service, Judge Cooke told Mannan: “It has taken us a long time to get here, much of that delay not your fault.

“I am at last making a disposal in respect of acts you did as long ago as 2013 when you took advantage of a heavily-intoxicated young woman to impose yourself on her, acts of intimacy she was in no fit state to consent to.

“There are limited disposals available. You have not been convicted of these offences, you have instead been found to have done the acts.”

And of the order itself, he warned Mannan: “No-one wants you to fail, but if you breach the terms of the order, you and I will meet again.”