A sex offender who identifies as a woman and is being held in a men’s jail has admitted groping two prison officers while being served food in a cell.
The crime
Katana Paris, 27, who was part way through a three-year sentence at the time for attacking a nurse, assaulted the male and female staff members at HMP Forest Bank in Manchester last year.
The first officer, a woman, was taking breakfast to Paris’ cell, with the help of two inmates, when the offender walked towards her and touched her inappropriately.
The next day, Paris reached through the cell door hatch and grabbed the genitals of a male officer as he tried to serve lunch.
Paris admitted two counts of sexual assault at Manchester Crown Court and was handed a further six-month sentence.
Prosecuting, Megan Edwards said that Paris, who uses female pronouns, was on remand at the prison for an offence of sexual assault.
The day of the incident, a female prison officer was on breakfast duty at around 7:50am.
Mrs Edwards said: ‘She approached the defendant’s cell and unlocked the door in order to serve her breakfast.
‘She stepped out of the cell, which was unusual, as prisoners would normally remain in their cell.
‘She asked the defendant to move back, but the request was ignored. The defendant then placed a hand on her hand, before sliding her fingers between her knuckles.’
The officer moved away and the two prisoners who were helping handed over Paris’ breakfast.
The defendant then ‘jumped up and down’ as if ‘excited’, before moving over to the woman and touching her genitals.
‘She did not say anything when she did this, but she was shocked and in disbelief that she deliberately touched her like that,’ the prosecutor added.
One of the prisoners, the court heard, said to the officer: ‘Did she just touch your…’
The officer replied: ‘Yes, she just touched me.’ Not wanting the rest of the inmates to know what happened, the prison officer continued to serve breakfast, before reporting the incident.
Paris, who has convictions for 87 offences, was handed a 37-month sentence after pulling a nurse towards her genitals while in hospital, the court heard.
The sentence
Sentencing, the Recorder of Manchester, Judge Nicholas Dean KC said: ‘Prison officers are placed in a vulnerable position – they are described as emergency workers.
‘They are in a situation where they are vulnerable to these sorts of assaults and they deserve and require the protections of the courts when assaults such as this happen.
‘I have read and considered a presentence report, and I am not convinced you have shown any significant remorse.
‘It seems to me you regard what you did as being rather trivial.’
Paris, is now at HMP Swaleside in Kent and will be on the sex offender register for five years
