Telford Railway Station pervert who made teenage woman physically sick fails to overturn conviction
A pervert who made a young woman physically sick when he forced her to kiss him while they were alone at Telford Central Railway Station has failed to get his conviction quashed.
Seied Hossein Beheshti, 57, kissed the young woman’s hands about 10 times, held her in a bear hug and grasped her hand hard as he kissed her on the cheek without consent in the late night assault on July 11, 2018.
A man on a platform on the opposite side of the station saw what was going on and went across the track to tell Beheshti he was the victim’s uncle to try to scare him off. When the victim escaped Beheshti’s advances and got onto the train, she vomited and called her boyfriend to come and pick her up.
Beheshti was convicted of sexual assault at Telford Magistrates Court after a trial in December 2018 which he didn’t turn up to, and was later sentenced to an 18-month community order.
He appealed his conviction at Shrewsbury Crown Court, claiming that she consentingly hugged and kissed him after he consoled her, gave her £10 to top up her phone and chatted with her about things they had in common.
But Judge Peter Barrie and magistrates who sat alongside him to hear the case rejected Beheshti’s version of events.
The court heard that Beheshti initially met the victim at Telford bus station and asked her how to get back to Birmingham following an evening in a pub watching football with a friend. She advised him to go to the railway station and get on a train to Wolverhampton.
Later, when the victim was at the train station, she ran into Beheshti again, who pestered her for more travel advice and told her she was pretty.
He took her hand and wouldn’t let go, kissing it 10 times “in a pecking motion”. He then gave her a bear hug that she couldn’t get out of, and kissed her on the cheek. She felt compelled to kiss him back to avoid upsetting him.
Jewellery
Beheshti also forced £10 into her pocket, and said he could give her jewellery and food.
Judge Peter Barrie said: “It is his case that this was an innocent and friendly hug and she was perfectly content for it to happen.
“It was something she did not want to happen and was entirely inappropriate. She felt vulnerable to do anything more by way of protest. This was happening at about 11.30pm on a station which was unstaffed. It was clearly a lonely and perilous situation for a young woman to find herself in.
“We find it entirely unsurprising that someone in her position would not feel safe to run away or react more vigorously for fear of what that might cause. She was frozen.
"We think it was a wholly inappropriate way for a middle-aged man to behave.
"He did find her pretty, he tried to approach her. He was interested in her to the point of hugging and kissing her, and she did not consent to it.
"No middle-aged man could have seriously believed a woman of her age would consent to a bear hug and a kiss from him. He was chancing his arm."
The conviction was upheld. Beheshti, of Ledsam Grove, Quinton, in Birmingham, remains in custody on an unrelated matter.
