Sri Lankan asylum seeker jailed for 16 months for abusive behaviour towards young girl

George Bunn
Wed, 01 Apr 2026 18:38:00 +0000

An asylum seeker from Sri Lanka has been jailed for 16 months for telling a young girl to "get her t**s out" and exposing himself to staff at the hotel where he was being accommodated.

Sukirthan Thangrasha was convicted following a trial at Portsmouth Crown Court of one count of exposure following the incident at an asylum hotel in Southampton, Hampshire, on August 15, 2025.

The 38-year-old also pleaded guilty to two charges of assault against two members of staff at the hotel.

He pleaded guilty to using abusive or threatening language in the incident involving the girl in Kingston Cemetery, Portsmouth, on September 15, 2025.

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The court heard how a man walking with his two children heard the defendant, who was drunk at the time, tell a girl who was walking nearby: "Get your t**s out".

After the incident, the young girl was left in a "teary" state.

The offences were committed in breach of a conditional discharge imposed on the defendant for two offences of assaulting two police constables and making threats to kill, the court heard.

He was also convicted of shoplifting offences from nearby John Lewis and M&S stores.

During the trial into the exposure incident, the court heard how Thangrasha had come to the reception and demanded staff repair his mobile phone before throwing it at the reception desk.

He became "abusive" to staff and said that he was a "strong man" and the staff were "small men from India and Pakistan and they should respect him".

Prosecutor Jack Furness said: "He then pulled his trousers down. The first time he left his underwear on and lifted his top up. Staff told him to stop and he did. A short while later, he pulled his trousers down and his underwear.

"He exposed himself in front of multiple other people. The defendant accepts exposing his genitals, and you can be sure of that from the CCTV footage. The crown says that you can be sure that he intended someone to see his genitals."

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He continued: "What is in issue is the defendant's intentions. The crown says the defendant exposed himself in the course of being aggressive, abusive, and demeaning to members of staff.

"His intention must have been to cause them alarm and distress in exposing his genitals. There is no other reason the crown say to behave in that way."

Thangrasha, who used a Tamil interpreter during court proceedings, had first come to the UK to flee the civil war in Sri Lanka, leaving his wife and children behind.

The court heard how he had since suffered from mental health issues, including anxiety and depression and drank excessively while in the UK.

One of the security officers working at the hotel at the time of the incident, Assad Zaman, said Thangrasha had been staying there for about five months at the time of the incident.

He told the court: "He got a bit aggressive as obviously I saw his appearance. He was a bit intoxicated. He was under the impression of alcohol; you could smell that on him. He was constantly trying to bang the desk where the staff were sitting and trying to show aggression."

Mr Zaman added the staff had told them it was not their job to fix his phone, and they tried to get him to calm down.

He said Thangrasha pulled his trousers down on two occasions, and on the second, he had also pulled his underwear down to expose himself.

Judge William Ashworth told him: "In truth I find little or no mitigation, you are still in denial of the number of offences of which you have pleaded guilty or been convicted of and fail to acknowledge you have repeatedly drunk to excess and committed offences as a result."

The court heard that the prosecution had decided to offer no evidence in relation to an allegation of entering the UK illegally.

However, Anthony Furze, defending, said: "No doubt the Home Office will have some questions to ask of him in due course."