MUSLIM CARPET FITTER SEXUALLY ASSAULTED WOMAN IN HER HOME

A HOMEOWNER was sexually assaulted by a workman who was laying flooring in her living room.

The woman, who was in her 20s, was groped by Mohammed Rafique while he was working for Pear Tree Carpet and Furniture Centre at her home in Derby.

Rafique, 62, grabbed the woman’s breast after he joined her in her garden for a cigarette and then again in the house after his colleague left the property.

Derby Crown Court, sitting at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court, heard that, before sexually assaulting the woman in the garden, Rafique had said to her: “You have kids – you must like to have a lot of sex.”

He then went on to make even more crude comments. After he grabbed her and she told him not to touch her, he said: “Don’t say anything to my boss because we won’t finish the job and will get in trouble.”

Then, after they had gone inside and Rafique was alone with the woman, he repeatedly grabbed her breast, Alex Wolfson, prosecuting, told the court.

Rafique, of Becher Street, Derby, pleaded guilty to sexual assault.

He was given a four-month prison sentence suspended for two years.

Judge Jonathan Gosling told him: “As a tradesman, you’re trusted to behave yourself in your customers’ homes.

“She was very alarmed and upset and she really didn’t know what to do because her little daughter was in the next room and she felt very dominated by you.

“And she is now much more wary about people coming into her house. She shouldn’t have to feel like that.

“You touched her more than once over her clothes on her chest and you made disgusting comments to her.”

Baz Bhatia, for Rafique, said: “This was shameful behaviour. His English is not good and the words that came out of his mouth probably came out more harshly than he would have wished it.

“He feels very keenly that, within the whole community, he has brought shame on himself and his family. The effect on the defendant is that he virtually doesn’t go out any more.”

Rafique, who has no previous convictions, will be supervised by the probation service and must pay an £80 Government surcharge.

He will be on the sex offenders’ register for seven years.

Following the sentence, Pear Tree Carpet and Furniture Centre, which is based in Pear Tree Road, said Rafique was not an employee at the time but had just been helping out.