A man who groped a teenager in a supermarket in an “opportunistic and demeaning” act, has been jailed for one year for sexual assault.
The then 16-year-old girl was helping her mother with the weekly grocery shop in a Dublin supermarket whenJasmin Nasic put his hand on her buttocks and forcefully groped her as he was walking by her.
Nasic (36), of Hillcrest Grove, Lucan, Co Dublin, was found guilty by a jury of one count of sexual assault and one count of engaging in offensive conduct of a sexual nature following a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court trial earlier this year. They are offences that carry a maximum sentence of 14 years and two years respectively.
Giving her victim impact sentence at Nasic’s sentence hearing earlier this year, the young woman said that it took three years and nine months from the date of the offence to the date of his conviction.
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“That is 1,375 days I have had to live with the consequences of this assault,” she told the court. She said that before the assault, she was an innocent young girl. “It didn’t even cross my mind that someone would do this to me,” she said.
She said Nasic’s decision to plead not guilty meant going through a trial which caused her “stress, anxiety and sleepless nights”.
She said the trauma of having to hand over her counselling notes in advance of the trial was “degrading”.
Judge Martina Baxter commended the complainant after she finished her statement and said she was “a great example for other young women”.
Sentencing Nasic on Friday, Judge Baxter noted the contents of a Probation Service report which found Nasic is at moderate risk of sexual reoffending. The court also heard that although Nasic has previously expressed remorse, he told the Probation Service that the incident was an accident and that he didn’t commit it “wilfully or intentionally”.
Judge Baxter noted that when it comes to sexual offending, Nasic “has much work to do”. She said he had subjected a young girl to “sexual grabbing” while she was grocery shopping in the company of her mother, noting it was an “opportunistic and demeaning” act.
Taking into account mitigating factors, including his good work history and lack of previous convictions, she sentenced him to two years in prison and suspended the final year on a number of conditions, including that he remain under the supervision of the Probation Service for a year after his release.
Nasic will now be a registered sex offender which will impact his employment and future travel prospects, the court heard.
