A nightclub pervert who thrust his naked privates into a Norwegian student’s hand has been jailed.
Suranga Wijethunga’s victim said that although the encounter in the ATIK nightclub ‘did not break her psychologically’ it made her ‘more upset thinking because of him [she] and other women need to be alert and have our guard up at all times’.
Jailing the 36-year-old for 13 months at Oxford Crown Court, Recorder David Mayall said: “You deny this offence. You do not think you did anything wrong on that occasion, which in my judgment must lessen the prospect of rehabilitation.”
Wijethunga was found guilty in January of sexually assaulting two young women at ATIK, Park End Street, in the early hours of November 30, 2019, and exposing himself to the foreign exchange students.
READ MORE: Female students 'flashed' by man in ATIK nightclub in Oxford, court told
He claimed that he’d been drunk, was caught short and found himself urinating on the dancefloor.
“I was drunk, confused and I wished to pee,” he told the court while being cross-examined.
The victims were dancing in ATIK nightclub on the night of November 29/30, 2019, when one was approached from behind by Wijethunga. He groped her leg.
Later, another woman felt someone pressing into her back. When she reached behind her to push the person away she felt the man’s privates in her hand.
CCTV from inside the nightclub showed her pushing him off the dancefloor and through security doors. The footage showed him apparently fiddling with his trousers.
READ MORE: Man guilty of sexual assaults in ATIK nightclub in Oxford
Mitigating, Jonathan Coode said: “It would appear on an empty stomach, Mr Wijethunga had far too much whisky to drink and that may be the most relevant factor in this in terms of any loss of inhibitions.” He had not ‘touched a drop of alcohol’ since his arrest in 2019.
His client, an electrician, was looking to relocate to Exeter. He was very fond of his mother, who was unwell and receiving treatment back in his native Sri Lanka.
Suranga Wijethunga outside Oxford Crown Court
A character reference from a priest at Wijethunga’s temple in Kandy described him as a ‘good person’ who had attended ‘important meetings’ relating to a religious school.
Mr Coode said of Wijethunga, who had also adopted a 10-year-old orphan back in Sri Lanka: “He is a good man who made a rather horrendous mistake on November 30.”
Wijethunga, of St Paul’s Crescent, Botley, was convicted of sexual assault and indecent exposure. He had no previous convictions although in 2018 was acquitted of an alleged sexual assault at the same nightclub.
A sexual harm prevention order bans him from going to nightclubs between 11pm and 6am for the next five years. He must register as a sex offender for a decade.
File image of ATIK nightclub in Park End Street, Oxford Picture: ED NIX
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