Is touching a offense that can result in jail?

[Ashkey234]

I'm worried about my friend ..il try and explain without giving too much detail.
Her boyfriend who works in a bar was arrested last year for touching a minor (4 girls all 17)
On the breast,groin,backside (all through clothes) they went to the police.
Obviously my friend said he is not guilty.
She said they had got in the car with him after the event took place so obviously they wouldn't if this happened.
It has been sent from magistrates court to crown court.
He is polish so they are worried incase he gets deported.
Do you think it will be a slap on the wrist ? Community service
Or worse?

He is 33...all these 4 girls are best friends.

Depends on lots of things, including previous convictions, guilty plea or trial etc but yes, he could go to prison. He could get a suspended sentence.
He can't be deported as he is European and currently has a right to live and work here.
If he's convicted though - would your friend want to stay with him? I know I wouldn't.

Was his role a position of trust eg he works at their youth club?

No it wasn't a position of trust.
He is pleading not guilty and has no previous convictions

Getting into a car with him is totally irrelevant.

I had to get a lift home with a man who groped my naked boob - i.e. shoved his hand down my front - after I had babysat his daughter.

If they're 17 they may not have been able to drive, and tbh, being touched up by men at that age isn't that unusual.

They got in the car with him 2 months after incident apparently happened ...

Well, the home office and Metropolitan police estimate the number of false accusations in rape cases to be broadly in line with that for other crimes - i.e. about 3%. I don't know what they are for lesser sexual offences like touching, but I'd hazard a guess that they're still in single figures. So I'd say that in the absence of any other information, the odds are pretty overwhelming that he's guilty. Of course, he may be in the small percentage that aren't guilty.

Also - 4 girls corroborating each other's story. Perhaps it's some sort of folie a quatre. But possibly, the details match up because he actually did touch all of them.

Look at all the horrendous cases in the last few years of victims being disbelieved - there's hundreds of them. He may be innocent. He may well be guilty. The court will decide. It's overwhelmingly likely (given that the standard of proof in a criminal trial is "beyond all possible doubt" and that rape myths and victim blaming in our society are endemic) that he'll be found not guilty, so you probably don't have anything to worry about. Though I get the impression you've decided that he couldn't possibly be guilty and even if he is found guilty, you'll be convinced it's a miscarriage of justice.

The sentencing guidelines for sexual offences can be found here:
Vwww.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/publications/item/sexual-offences-definitive-guideline/

Il be honest with you I've never had a good feeling about him,he always came across as a slime ball but I love my friend and I'm hoping it's untrue for her and her children's sake.

Two months afterwards is even less relevant. It tells you absolutely nothing about what happened.

I think it's most likely to be true tbh, generally that kind of groping is under rather than over-reported.

I guess it's just a case of waiting and see what happens.
You never really know exactly what happened

It's not 'touching'. It's sexual assault.

I was repeatedly sexually assaulted by my driving instructor at 17. I still got in the car and did my lessons with him every week until I passed my test. I didn't report him until a while later as I didn't think I'd be believed
This happened to me (tho the reason I didn't tell anyone was that I thought I must just be a bit of a prude to mind him fondling my leg etc, because I had a v sheltered upbringing..).
In saw that he'd been convicted about 5 years later. He'd stopped at a carpark and actually raped a woman..he used to make me stop there sometimes too while he had a cigarette....goes to show why we should report this kind of behaviour :-/.

She has children? Thats a risk I just wouldnt take

OP, tell your friends to prepare for the biggest drip-feed she will experience in her life.

If the case has gone to crown court then that means it is for a more serious offence , I imagine touching might be half the story your friend has been told.

Not necessarily creampastry, he might have elected a crown court trial. Many dl as the mags court has a 90% conviction rate whereas the crown court only has 60%.

It will have been sent to the Crown Court from the Mags Court, due to the fact if he was found guilty, the sentence given would be more than can be given at the Mags Court.

Once at Crown Court, he will be called to enter his plea. It could be that the Judge dismisses the CPS evidence as insufficient and not in the public interest to pursue.

Or it will go to trial.

But I've known girls who have made false accusations of a similar nature and got absolutely slaughtered in the Court room.

Female complainants of sex offences get slaughtered in court even when the accusations are true.

When you say you knew them to be false, do you mean you were a witness to events?

If he's not supposed to be alone with under 18s and she's persuing a relationship with him she could risk losing her children!

She really does need to chose them or him, at least unless he has been found not guilty in the past tense. Until then she should stay away from him romantically and make sure that his supervised contact with his children is very formal and witnessed.

When you say you knew them to be false, do you mean you were a witness to events

I didn't witness anything. They made accusations, I went to the trial as support for a friend, both girls under questioning admitted they had made it up, it was a claim of historic sex offences.

They are now facing their own prosecution of slander, perverting the course of justice, blackmail, obtaining goods by deception and other offences.