When 'Asian' is not a Coy Euphemism

It's a sort of open secret in Britain that when the police declare they are looking for an 'Asian' suspect, they generally mean 'Muslim'.

That is because of any group of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent, Muslims are by far the most likely to be involved in crime.

In the interests of fairness, however, here are two disturbing cases I stumbled across which involve 'Asian' suspects who are, judging by their names at least, not Muslim.

• A man sexually assaulted a teenager at a bus stop in Worcester whilst he was taking his young daughter to nursery school. The magistrates did not even see fit to impose a prison sentence:

A FATHER who made inappropriate remarks and indecently assaulted a schoolgirl has been ordered to sign the sex offenders register.

Kulbinder Kumar had approached the 16-year-old girl at a bus stop in Worcester as she was waiting to meet a friend to go to school.

He was pushing his young daughter in a pram and stopped at the bus stop on Tuesday, September 9, last year at about 7.40am.

Matt Dodson, prosecuting, told the court Kumar that had started to speak to the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and asked her for her phone number.

“He asked her to go with him to take his daughter to the nursery,” said Mr Dodson.

“She said she didn’t want to go as she needed to go to school.”

Mr Dodson said Kumar then made inappropriate remarks to the girl.

“He went to hug and kiss her,” said Mr Dodson.

“He placed his arms around her.”

When the girl, who was shaken by the incident, arrived at school she reported it to a teacher who then told the police.

She was able to give information to officers about the age of his daughter and what he looked like.

They then were able to trace her by visiting nurseries in the area.

Kumar, aged 26, of Leeds Old Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire, who had an ex-partner in Worcester, was arrested almost a month later.

Kumar had denied the charge of sexual assault on a female, but was found guilty after a trial last month.

He had told police he had been in Worcester to take his daughter to nursery and had been at the bus stop to shelter from the rain.

“He said he wasn’t chatting her up and she wasn’t chatting him up,” said Mr Dodson.

The warehouse worker from Bradford was told by Worcester magistrates that he must complete a community order for three years.

He was also given a supervision requirement and a requirement to complete the sex offenders programme.

Kumar will also have to be on the sex offenders register for five years, and was ordered to pay £300 in compensation and £500 towards court costs.

• A man has been jailed for four months after drunkenly groping a woman at Leeds Railway Station - whilst he was on the phone to his new wife:

A drunken pervert groped a woman while he was on the phone to his new wife.

Jayesh Parmar was placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for seven years after he admitted the assault at Leeds City Station.

Parmar, 31, initially claimed to have no recollection of the incident in April and said he had been drinking for several hours when it happened.

But after being shown CCTV footage of the attack, he conceded that he was responsible.

Prosecutor Deborah Smithies told the court Parmar, from Brighouse, was walking through the concourse at Leeds station and chatting on his mobile when he reached out and intimately touched the woman.

Ms Smithies said: "She said to him 'What do you think you are doing?' and ran after him. He said to her 'I was having a laugh'.

"She slapped him in the face and another female ran over to help. She was still shouting at him as he walked off. He kept saying 'I was having a laugh'.

"She tried to kick him as he ran off and then she rang 999. He was traced by CCTV.

"When he was questioned he said he couldn't remember because he had drunk so much alcohol. He admitted, though, that the footage showed him attacking the woman."

At Leeds Magistrates Court this week, he was given a four-month prison sentence, suspended for a year, and a 12 month supervision order.

He was also ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work, to attend a Stop Binge Drinking probation programme, to pay his victim £500 in compensation and to pay court costs of £60.

District judge Joanne Hirst told him: "You were drinking and thought you were 'having a laugh'. There is nothing funny about it. The psychological distress suffered by your victim should not be underestimated."

In mitigation, Mr Stuart Page said his client had married on May 24 – after the incident – and his new wife was in court to support her husband.

He said Parmar had been stressed when the incident took place, fearing his now wife was suffering serious health problems.

Mr Page said: "He had consumed an extremely large amount of alcohol. He was on the telephone to his wife and had arranged to meet her. She had to make a series of phone calls to establish exactly where he was because he had been drinking so much. He doesn't have any recollection of why he did what he did.

"His wife has stuck by him although this has caused difficulties in their relationship. It is something he is deeply remorseful about, not least because of the level of anguish the complainant felt."