🔴 Iraqi asylum seeker found guilty of sexually assaulting woman on train after giving thumbs-up gesture
An Iraqi asylum seeker who arrived in Britain by small boat has been convictedi of sexual assault after targeting a lone female passenger on a Southern Rail service.
Hawre Mohamed, aged 27, with no fixed abode but latterly accommodated in taxpayer-funded hotel accommodation near Gatwick Airport, was found guilty at Croydon Magistrates’ Court of a single count of sexual assault following a summary trial on Monday.
District Judge Nicola Fleck remanded the defendant in custody ahead of sentencing on 8 December.
The offence occurred on the evening of 22 September this year when Mohamed, who had entered the United Kingdom irregularly across the Channel, followed a 20-year-old woman through Crawley railway station in West Sussex.
CCTV footage tendered in evidence showed Mohamed pushing through the ticket barriers before directing a thumbs-up gesture towards the complainant as she waited on the platform.
He then boarded the same train, sat directly beside her despite numerous empty seats, and immediately engaged her in conversation.
Prosecutor Barto de Lotbiniere told the court that Mohamed asked the woman where she lived before stating explicitly: “I want to have sex with you.”
As the train moved off, he squeezed her buttock, gripped her thigh, pressed his body against hers and attempted to kiss her, trapping her against the window.
The victim attempted to move away several times but was prevented from doing so until the train reached Redhill station approximately fifteen minutes later, at which point she escaped and raised the alarm.
Mohamed was arrested ten days later on 2 October.
When interviewed by Sussex Police he maintained that he had “done nothing wrong”, claimed he had spoken to “many females that day”, and later told the court through an interpreter that the complainant had “wanted sex” and displayed a “nice attitude”.
Defence counsel Eleanor Umeyor submitted that her client had desisted once “consent was withdrawn”.
Rejecting that assertion, District Judge Fleck ruled that no consent had ever been given at any stage and convicted Mohamed on the strength of the complainant’s credible testimony, supported by the CCTV evidence and the defendant’s own admissions in interview.
At the material time Mohamed’s asylum application remained under consideration by the Home Office.
Home Office statistics for the year ending June 2025 record 49,341 detected irregular arrivals in the United Kingdom, an increase of 27 per cent on the previous twelve months.
Some 88 per cent of those arrivals crossed the Channel in small boats, with Iraqi nationals accounting for 13 per cent of the total.
Mohamed will reappear before Croydon Magistrates’ Court for sentence next month where the maximum penalty available is six months’ imprisonment, though the court retains power to commit the case to the Crown Court for a higher sentence if deemed appropriate.
