Qatari camel herder who sexually assaulted woman in UK hospital blames ‘little contact with women in home country'

The Sun

4 hours ago

A QATARI camel herder who sexually assaulted a woman in a UK hospital blamed having "little interaction" with women in his home country.
Nasser Al-Gherainiq dragged the victim in a toilet at the Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea, South West London.
The 27-year-old had come to the UK from his native Qatar to receive treatment for a rare heart condition.
Al-Gherainiq, who admitted sexual assault and causing a person to engage in sexual activity without their consent, was also convicted of two counts of attempted rape.
He has now been jailed for seven years and will be deported once he is released.
His defence lawyer Jane Bickerstaff KC told Southwark Crown Court the fiend would not have had much contact with women outside his family.
She said: "Until July 2023 he had never left Qatar. He would have had minimal experience engaging with women outside a family context.
"The only woman he would have had any meaningful contact with is his mother."
Ms Bickerstaff said his time spent in the Qatar desert had "curtailed his exposure to urban and modern societal norms",
She continued: "This defendant would have had no experience whatsoever of interacting with a woman.
"We submit that he was equivalent to an immature and inexperienced adolescent.
"He completely failed to understand her true feelings."
The court was told Al-Gherainiq told the victim he needed to go to the toilet then pulled her inside the cubicle in the August 2023 horror.
In a victim impact statement, she told how felt "so scared" and "frozen with fear".
She added: "I couldn't go anywhere. Although the incident lasted a few minutes it felt like ages to me. I was very shocked to hear it was only five minutes.
"A few days after the incident I had huge anxiety and fear. I could not leave the house.
"My life has never been the same. My family still do not know what happened to me. I am so close to my family.
"It has been a lonely and isolated year for me. I am not the outgoing woman I used to be. I am withdrawn and highly anxious and overly cautious, especially when I'm on my own in an unfamiliar environment."
Judge Adam Hiddleston told Al-Gherainiq, who listened to the sentence through an Arabic interpreter, rejected his plea to impose a lower jail term due to his background.
The judge said: "I appreciate the cultural differences between the world in which you grew up and in the United Kingdom.
"You knew perfectly well what you were doing was against her wishes."
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