A PIZZA shop worker who groped a teenager in a nightclub was yesterday jailed for a year and told he will be deported when he is released from prison.

Shachawan Ahmed was convicted last month of sexually assaulting the 16-year-old, but was cleared of similar offences against two other women.

The Iraqi asylum-seeker accepted he had touched the breasts of the first girl as they kissed near the dance floor of the disco bar on December 29.

But he denied putting his hand down her trousers and refuted claims that he tried to force the girl's hand towards his groin.

The 32-year-old 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 friend who went to confront him about his conduct after finding her pals 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.

The jury in the three-day trial at Teesside Crown Court heard that Ahmed told police he would regularly kiss strangers if he was on a night out.

Victoria Lamballe, mitigating, yesterday told the court that Ahmed, of Gladstone Street, Darlington, still denies the offences.

She also said Ahmed thought the girls were older otherwise they would not have been in the club, Monaco's, in Bishop Auckland, County Durham.

Judge Tony Briggs told Ahmed: "You have been convicted by the jury of an unpleasant indecent assault, but there is force in what Miss Lamballe says.

"This was a relatively short-lived incident, but it did have unpleasant features - you clearly put your hand down this young girl's trousers.

"This was a serious matter and undoubtedly distressing for the young girl who had to re-tell the account during the course of this trial."