A nightclubber jailed for sexually assaulting two women on an Oxford dancefloor is due before the Court of Appeal this morning.
Suranga Wijethunga was handed a 13 month sentence in March after jurors at the city’s crown court found him guilty of two sexual assaults and a charge of indecent exposure.
READ MORE: Jail for nightclubber who sexually assaulted women on dancefloor
Prosecutors said that the Oxford man groped one of his victims at ATIK on the night of November 30, 2019, then pressed his exposed genitals into the back of a second woman.
Wijethunga denied sexual assault and claimed that he had removed himself from his trousers as he was drunk and ‘wished to pee’.
Jailing the then 36-year-old for 13 months in March, 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.”
His case will be considered by the Court of Appeal in London’s Royal Courts of Justice this morning. Wijethunga has been given ‘leave’ by a single judge considering the case on the papers to take the case to the full panel of three appeal justices. Lawyers for the nightclubber are expected to say the sentence was excessive.
The case will be called on after 10.30am this morning.
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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.
To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk
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