Iraqi guilty of groping girl, 16, in nightclub

Shachawan Ahmed, an Iraqi asylum-seeker, had been accused of sexually assaulting three teenage friends during a night out, but was yesterday cleared of two of the alleged attacks.

A jury took more than three hours to reach the unanimous verdicts yesterday, at the end of a three-day trial Teesside Crown Court.

Ahmed was remanded in custody, while reports are prepared by the probation service, ahead of him being sentenced by Judge Tony Briggs, on Friday, August 31.

Ahmed had denied three charges of sexual assault, said to have been committed in a late-night disco bar in Bishop Auckland, County Durham. He was found guilty of one.

Ahmed, 32, from Darlington, accepted he had touched the breasts of the first girl as they kissed near the dancefloor of Monaco's on December 29.

But he denied putting his hand down her trousers and refuted claims he tried to force the girl's hand towards his groin. Ahmed said he kissed the second girl, but again denied that he had touched her or attempted to make her touch him in a sexual way.

A third girl, who went to confront him about his conduct after finding her friends sobbing and upset, slapped Ahmed across the face.

She also claimed Ahmed tried to force her hand down his trousers, but the jury ruled that the allegation - like the second one - was false.

Giving evidence during the trial, Ahmed, of Gladstone Street, said: "I don't do anything like that. This is not me, this is not my style."

Asked about trying to force the girls' hands down his trousers he said: "I do not believe anyone could do that in a public place."

The court heard that, during an interview, Ahmed admitted kissing the first two girls but said it was consensual and nothing else had happened other than him touching the breasts of one, but she did not object.

He said the friends must have made up the claims because they were jealous when they later saw him with someone else.

Ahmed told police he often kissed girls during nights out.