A RESTAURANT worker left a teenager feeling 'scared, worried and upset' after sexually assaulting her, a court heard.

Mohammed Ghulam Kibriya, who at the time was working at The Bangla Lounge in Barrow, has been jailed for a year.

Preston Crown Court heard Kibriya, who now resides in Lincolnshire but is of no fixed abode, admitted to the sexual assault - which dates back to June 2019 - on the day his trial was due to start.

A judge said the 53-year-old had abused his position of power as the older man over the teenager - who is granted automatic anonymity for legal reasons - and deemed his original denial of the offence as "troubling".

Kibriya had been messaging the victim in a way that she deemed to be 'him just being friendly' at first, said prosecutor John Close.

This led to him conducting inappropriate touching of the victim which he followed up with questions relating to bra size as well as other comments of a sexual nature, the court was told.

"The victim was left scared, worried and upset by the incident," Mr Close said.

"There have been emotional and practical impacts from this offence.

"The victim has said that she has been walking around with a rape alarm because of this incident."

An application for a restraining order was made for the defendant not to contact the victim which was accepted by the court.

Defence counsel Neil Baki responded to His Honour Judge Robert Altham's concerns over the matter of the pre-sentence report where Kibriya dismissed the offences as untrue.

The defence suggested there had been a miscommunication which led to him saying this when spoken to by probation.

Mr Baki suggested to the court a suspended sentence could help him learn from what he did rather than a short prison sentence which would lead to him coming out of prison and having no change in views.

The judge explained this would make more sense if he had not denied the truthfulness of the offence in the pre-sentence report - and this counted against him.

"I have made it clear to him that the comments he made may have led to him going into custody rather than a suspended sentence,” Mr Baki said.

"For him to have missed this opportunity is very sad indeed.

"There is still opportunity for him to see the error of his ways."

The judge took this into account but decided that the mitigating factors for a suspended sentence did not outweigh the aggravating features and sent him to prison for 12 months.

Kibriya was also required to sign the sex offender’s register.