By Sarah McPhee
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
A man who inappropriately touched a teenager after she mistook his car for her Uber in Sydney’s east lacks the intellectual capacity to distinguish between what he sees in pornography and normal behaviour, his barrister has argued.
Mohamed Maan Hammoud, 42, pleaded guilty in August to sexually touching another person without consent after the incident involving an 18-year-old woman, which began outside Paddington’s Village Inn pub last October.
Mohamed Maan Hammoud, 42, leaves court after he was sentenced for touching a teenager who accidentally got into his car.Credit: Nick Moir
The teenager and her friend had been drinking at the pub on Glenmore Road before she booked an Uber to travel about five kilometres home, according to the agreed facts.
She had multiple trips cancelled and was assigned a driver with a white Toyota Corolla.
“A short time later the victim got into the front passenger side of a black Toyota Corolla hatchback,” the facts state. “This vehicle was being driven by the offender.”
Throughout the ordeal, the teenager had her thigh repeatedly stroked and Hammoud tried to put his hand under her skirt.
He made comments such as asking, “Do you get horny?” and if she was making “sex noises” and told her to spread her legs, to which she replied, “No”.
The Village Inn in Paddington, where the victim was expecting to get into her Uber.Credit: Louise Kennerley
The facts state the woman felt uncomfortable and started recording audio of the incident on her phone, and “in order to avoid the offender” pretended she was asleep until she was dropped off.
Making an ultimately unsuccessful application to have the matter dealt with under mental health legislation, Hammoud’s barrister Julia-Ann Hickleton said her client’s behaviour could be “directly linked” to his cognitive impairment.
She said she was not suggesting the innocent woman “was in any way responsible for what happened”, but that her client has “great difficulty processing new information” and has lived a relatively sheltered life in the care of his parents.
“In the last few years he’s had access to pornography through a streaming service,” she said.
Hickleton said the “unfortunate reality” of the internet was that it allowed access to material that was inappropriate for children and vulnerable adults who “lack the intellectual capacity to distinguish what is depicted in the pornography and what is accepted as normal behaviour”.
“The reason for him behaving in the way he did appears to relate to having access to material which, quite frankly, he is not cognitively sophisticated enough to process appropriately,” the barrister said.
She said there was no evidence Hammoud invited or encouraged the woman to get into the car, or any indication he previously exhibited predatory behaviour towards strangers or sexual deviancy.
Hickleton said Hammoud’s sister reported he had started to “talk dirty in family situations”, presumably influenced by what he had watched. She said a forensic psychiatrist, who prepared a report on Hammoud, suggested treatment including sex education and information on consent.
The police prosecutor opposed the application, submitting that the offending was serious and of a sexual nature and the balancing test fell in favour of having it dealt with according to law.
He said Hammoud had “taken advantage of the victim’s mistake” and “made no attempt to correct her”, before committing multiple acts during the car ride. The prosecutor acknowledged the matter did not pass the threshhold for jail time.
Magistrate Daniel Covington said it was a serious offence and there were “a number of factors in the facts that cause the court some concern” including a young and vulnerable victim, that it happened at night, and that the teenager was alone in the vehicle with Hammoud.
Covington said there was a “stronger public interest in the matters being dealt with according to law” and refused the Section 14 application.
He sentenced Hammoud to a two-year Community Correction Order, on conditions including no offending and complying with treatment recommended by doctors.
The magistrate noted Hammoud suffered from claustrophobia and had a cognitive impairment.
“There is clearly a condition that had an impact on his offending and hopefully, with some continued treatment, we won’t see him back before the court,” he said, warning that there would be “very few options available” were Hammoud to reoffend.
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