A SEX offender has been handed a five-year sexual harm prevention order after sexually assaulting a woman.

Dragos Ciuc appeared before magistrates in Hereford for sentencing in November after he was found guilty of one count of sexual assault on a female at trial before magistrates on an earlier date.

The court heard from prosecutor Andrew Mitchinson that the 37-year-old had intentionally sexually touched a woman aged 16 or over when she did not consent and when he did not reasonably believe she was consenting in Worcester between June 1, 2021, and July 15, 2021.

Ciuc, who is of Commercial Street, Hereford, was ordered to register with police for five years, must pay compensation of £200, and received a 26-week prison sentence, suspended for 24 months, with magistrates saying a custodial sentence was justified as he has a previous conviction for a like matter.

He was also made subject to a five-year sexual harm prevention order.

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The order prohibits him from entering into any relationship without first informing his offender manager of that other person's full personal details, associating with or contacting by any means persons he knows to have been convicted of sexual offences, and creating or using any on line social networking, messaging, or chat room without giving his offender manager his account details.

He is also banned from directly or indirectly contacting a woman or going within 100 metres of any address or place he believes her to be at, undertaking any activity likely to bring him into contact with lone females without the written prior permission of the chief constable of the police force area in which the defendant resides, and approaching any lone females without reasonable excuse.

He must pay prosecution costs of £685 and a £128 victim surcharge.

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