Miss-Delectable
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Deaf sex offender escapes community service
A deaf sex offender has been banned from doing community services after probation officers claimed it would be "dangerous".
Mohammed Jamil, 34, attacked and sexually abused a woman in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, in May last year.
Jude Sean Enright who presided over his trial said he planned on handing Jamil a suspended jail sentence and order he carry out community service, but was informed probation officers had failed to clear the 34-year-old for the work.
Peterborough crown court heard how a health and safety ruling declared it was unsafe for Jamil to carry out community work because he did not understand sign language and English was not his first language.
Jude Enright criticised the decision, stating: "I think that policy stinks, to be quite frank.
"I don't accept the proposition that, because of his language difficulties and his disability, he cannot do unpaid work. Is that really the policy of the probation service?
"If the probation service cannot make arrangements as an alternative to imprisonment for people like this defendant, then people with hearing difficulties are being channelled into custody."
The judge therefore instructed probation officers to come up with a compromise allowing him to impose a community sentence.
Cambridgeshire probation service defended its decision saying it was not possible to put Jamil with others if he did not understand instructions and he was not suitable to lone working because he is a sex offender.
The deaf charity RND is quoted by the Telegraph newspaper as urging probation services to provide support for those hard of hearing from the time they are arrested through to any trial and/or sentence they may receive plus when they are eventually released.
Jamil pleaded guilty to sexual assault and was ordered to sign the sex offenders register until he is sentenced in March.
A deaf sex offender has been banned from doing community services after probation officers claimed it would be "dangerous".
Mohammed Jamil, 34, attacked and sexually abused a woman in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, in May last year.
Jude Sean Enright who presided over his trial said he planned on handing Jamil a suspended jail sentence and order he carry out community service, but was informed probation officers had failed to clear the 34-year-old for the work.
Peterborough crown court heard how a health and safety ruling declared it was unsafe for Jamil to carry out community work because he did not understand sign language and English was not his first language.
Jude Enright criticised the decision, stating: "I think that policy stinks, to be quite frank.
"I don't accept the proposition that, because of his language difficulties and his disability, he cannot do unpaid work. Is that really the policy of the probation service?
"If the probation service cannot make arrangements as an alternative to imprisonment for people like this defendant, then people with hearing difficulties are being channelled into custody."
The judge therefore instructed probation officers to come up with a compromise allowing him to impose a community sentence.
Cambridgeshire probation service defended its decision saying it was not possible to put Jamil with others if he did not understand instructions and he was not suitable to lone working because he is a sex offender.
The deaf charity RND is quoted by the Telegraph newspaper as urging probation services to provide support for those hard of hearing from the time they are arrested through to any trial and/or sentence they may receive plus when they are eventually released.
Jamil pleaded guilty to sexual assault and was ordered to sign the sex offenders register until he is sentenced in March.