A Warrington house party ended with a young woman waking to find another guest in her bed sexually molesting her, a court heard yesterday, Friday.
The 21-year-old had earlier been out drinking with her friend to celebrate her new job and they then went to the friend’s home at about 10 pm.
The court heard that there were other people there including HGV driver Frank Manase and a couple of other men and the young woman had some more alcohol and took cocaine. She decided to stay over and after going home to get some clothes came back and continued partying, said Martine Snowdon, prosecuting.
“As far as she was concerned it was a typical house party, people having fun and dancing and at one stage she was dancing with the defendant.”
About 3 am she went to sleep in the guest bedroom and her friend kept an eye out as access to the toilet was via that room, said Ms Snowdon.
Manase was to sleep downstairs but he kept going upstairs and his behaviour was “bizarre” including asking the victim’s friend if “she wanted to have a threesome.”
When he seemed to have settled down she and her partner went to bed. Later the victim awoke and found Manase lying under the duvet behind her, kissing her neck and top of her shoulders.
She was half asleep and confused and turned to see what was happening and saw Manase. She turned away from him “saying ‘no’ with her body language but he continued to kiss her.”
He said he wanted to perform oral sex on her and she told him to stop but he put his hands under her top, “grabbing and groping her breasts.”
“She was pushing herself against the wall to get away from him and continued to say, ‘stop, stop’. He tried to put his hands down her trousers but she moved onto her stomach to stop him.”
Ms Snowdon said that when she heard someone moving in the master bedroom next door she shouted out and when her friend responded she fled from the room.
Menase left the premises and later sent a number of texts and WhatsApp messages apologising for his behaviour. “She told him his behaviour was not okay and blocked his messages. He was arrested on July 24, 2021.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that he was identified via his mobile phone and picked out on an identity parade the following March. He was interviewed the next month and gave a prepared statement denying the allegations. He was sent a postal requisition in March this year.
The victim read her impact statement to the court in which she said she had been embarrassed in having to relive the incident and had been left with horrible memories.
“I still flinch when I am touched unexpectedly or someone walks past me. It made me hate the skin I was in and it took a long time to feel like my own skin.”
As she left the witness box she glared over at Manase sitting in the dock.
Steven McNally, defending, said that Manase is a HGV driver who provides for his partner and five-year-old daughter and also relatives in Africa.
The court heard that he lost his mother, brother and sister in “quick succession” which left his sister’s children orphaned and he pays for their school fees in Tanzania.
“He was attracted to the victim and thought that feeling was mutual and under the influence of substances that he and others had taken he misunderstood the situation and sought to cajole her into behaviour she was not interested in,” said Mr McNally.
Sentencing him to 11 months imprisonment suspended for a year Judge Gary Woodhall said that the defendant admitted what he had done was wrong but was struggling to understand why he acted in that way and blamed drink.
“Frankly it seems to me likely the explanation for your behaviour is the disinhibiting effect of alcohol and drugs,” said the judge.
He said that the victim had been vulnerable as she had been sleeping but he was suspending the sentence for reasons including the defendant’s lack of previous convictions, his guilty plea and the delays in bringing the case to court.
Menase, of Malpas Road, Wallasey, Wirral, had pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the victim on May 16, 2021.
Judge Woodhall ordered him to carry out 45 days rehabilitation activities, 150 hours unpaid work and to pay £1,000 towards the prosecution costs. Menase has to sign the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.
