NOTTINGHAM CITY COUNCIL CLEANER FOUND GUILTY OF SEXUAL ASSAULT IN M&S TOILETS
A jury has ruled that a Nottingham City Council street cleaner did sexually assault a woman inside the toilets of an Marks and Spencer store.Following a Finding of Fact hearing at Nottingham Crown Court, the seven men and five women took two hours to conclude that Davoid Hemsell carried out the act he had been charged with doing.
The hearing was told how the 66-year-old, of Forest Fields, placed his hand on the victim's body and moved it to her groin area, leaving her “visibly distressed” at the Albert Street branch of the retail giant.
Now he will be sentenced at a future date, once the judge knows more about the defendant’s personal circumstances.
Adjourning the case until early October, Judge Nigel Godsmark KC said: “The options available to me are a hospital disposal or a supervision order and this is not a case where hospital treatment will assist.
I am looking to make a supervision order but I would like to know a little more about how the order will operate, who will administer it and how it will offer greater protection." A Finding of Fact hearing is similar to a trial, but in this case Hemsell has been deemed unfit to enter a plea owing to his severe learning disabilities.
As such, rather than tasked with finding him guilty or not guilty of the charge, the jury was instead tasked to conclude that he either did or did not carry out the act he was accused of.
Prosecutor Stuart Lody, opening the hearing, said the incident took place inside one of the customer toilets on July 24, last year.
He said: “David, despite his profound difficulties, had a job at the relevant time working for Nottingham City Council as a street cleaner.
He walks around the streets of Nottingham helping to keep them spick and span wearing a council-issued hi-vis uniform and pushing a trolley.
He was in the habit of stopping his barrow each morning outside Marks and Spencer and going inside to use the facilities and he was known to many of the staff there due to his regular habit.” Mr Lody said on the day in question the defendant entered one of the toilets where he encountered the alleged victim.
He said: “He moved towards her, she moved back, he tried to kiss her and he put his hand on her chest, then her tummy area and moved it down to her (groin) area.
She was profoundly shocked, she told him to stop it and he abruptly stopped and walked out.
“She exited the toilet with a look of distress and called her mother.
The following morning he returned to Marks and Spencer where members of staff recognized him, the police were called and he was arrested.” Giving evidence from behind a screen, the woman, whose identity is protected by law, told how she encountered Hemsell inside the toilet and who placed his hand on her body and moved it downwards.
She said: “I said to him ‘can you stop it?’ and he did and I thought to myself ‘I need to get out of here’.” The woman's mother, giving evidence, told the jury how she received a phone call from her daughter following the incident and that she “could not understand what she was saying because she was so upset”.
Witness Margaret Priddle, who is the manager of the care home where the defendant lives, told the jury she was his appropriate adult at the police station following his arrest last July and has known him for more than two decades.
She said: “I said to him ‘David,’ whatever have you done?’ and he said he had touched her from the shoulder, across her bosom and down (her body).
He said he did not think he had done anything wrong.”
