A small boat migrant has been sentenced to just 14 months in prison, but could walk free, after he sexually assaulted an "extremely vulnerable" teenage girl in a broad daylight attack.
The 19-year-old girl had been sent to pick up fruit from a food bank by her mother when she was attacked by Eritrean Aron Hadsh in June last year.
Hadsh, 27, entered the UK illegally around three years ago after crossing the Channel - and was living in a taxpayer-funded Holiday Inn at the time of the assault.
On Friday, a court heard how he pursued her to a park in Fulham where he pinned her on his lap before grabbing her breasts and touching her crotch for several minutes until she managed to escape.
In a statement read out in court, the victim said: "On the day it happened it made me feel very nervous. I felt that my body shut down.
"I was scared to see him again, in case he would kill me, because he was laughing after he ran off and sexually assaulted me."
Hadsh was caught five weeks after the incident when the victim saw him again while she was out shopping with her mother.
Members of the public stepped in to detain him until police arrived.
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|Hadsh was living in a taxpayer-funded Holiday Inn at the time of the assault
Prosecutor Sam Barker told Isleworth Crown Court the victim has numerous learning difficulties, which means she seems "very childlike" and has an "extreme vulnerability".
The defendant was sentenced to only 14 months in prison, with a five-year restraining order, after he was convicted of one count of sexual assault in May this year.
He was acquitted of one count of kidnapping.
However, because Hadsh has already spent nearly a year in custody, he will not spend any more time in prison.
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|The defendant was sentenced to only 14 months in prison after he was convicted of one count of sexual assault in Isleworth Crown Court
This is despite the judge declaring that he poses a "high risk of serious harm to the public".
It is not known whether he will be sent to an immigration detention centre or released into the public.
Judge Alastair Rolf Hammerton explained Hadsh was intoxicated at the time of the offence, and explained he posed "a high risk of sexual reoffending".
However, he told the defendant: "I understand your conditions in prison are more challenging because English is not your first language."
Hammerton told the court to proceed on the assumption Hadsh was a man of "good character", given there are no criminal records available from before he entered the UK.
However, Barker said it was not possible to know whether Hadsh, who was granted asylum in before his offence, had any prior convictions.
He said: "We haven't done the checks, because we can't."
The defendant wore a grey t-shirt and beaded necklace during the sentencing, showing no remorse as he continued to plead his innocence.
He was unrepresented at his sentencing because he had previously sacked his defence counsel during the trial.
Barker also described how the assault has affected not only the victim, but her family as well, with her mother feeling "frustrated" and "angry" that she sent her daughter to the food bank.