2021: MALVERN CARE HOME WORKER JAILED AFTER SEXUALLY ASSAULTING THREE WOMEN
IN the latest Crime Files, we look back at the case of a Malvern care worker who was jailed after sickening sexual assaults at the care home where he worked.Basalinmon Mathai was jailed back in March 2015 after being found guilty of assaulting three female colleagues at a care home in the county.
The court heard how Mathai, of Poolbrook Road, Malvern, had assaulted the “vulnerable” women by restraining them, leaving them suffering “significant emotional suffering” as a result of the assaults.
Mathai, then aged 41, was jailed for 12 weeks at Worcester Magistrates Court having originally pleaded not guilty to the assaults.
Prosecutor Owen Beale said of Mathai's offences: "The first victim says she was getting her possessions from the lounge of the care home and the other night staff had left, leaving just her and Mathai.
As she stood up she could see him behind her and he told her not to go.
He took her by the arm, then held both her arms so she couldn’t move, looked to see if anyone was looking and tried to kiss her four or five times while she could not move or push him away.
She was able to break free and complained to the management.
Following this, enquiries were made to see if there had been any other incidents, and another woman at the same place of work came forward to say she had been assaulted too.
She said she was a new starter and he told her to sit by him, so he could explain procedures to her.
While sat by her, he began to touch her ear and tried to carry on doing so a couple of time before she got away.
On the following night, he came up to her and put his arm around her and tried to block her path past him.
Both instances happened at the care home, where he was a more senior care worker due to a high staff turnover.
Because of this he was trusted to show the new starters how things worked.
At a different care home, while he was working as a kitchen porter, a woman said he had seemed overly friendly and made remarks about how pretty she was.
When they were both in a kitchen she tried to pass him, but he grabbed her and tried to pull her towards him and leaned forward to try and kiss him.
She managed to break free and reported it.
Tim Gascoyne, defending, said: “This was mostly trying to kiss women.
He came to this country with his wife from India, and she is studying to be a nurse.
His wife was working at one of the care homes at the time he was too.
He was a qualified nurse back in India and in the Middle East.
His English is very poor and they are both here on student visas so employment opportunities are limited.
He was more experienced than the women, and was showing them the ropes.
He has no previous convictions at all.
District Judge Nigel Cabury jailed Mathai for 28 days for each charge to run consecutively.
Mr Cadbury also ordered him to sign the sexual offence register for seven years.
He said: “This case has three different incidents and three different victims.
I accept the touching was not of the most serious, but there are aggravating features here in the persistence you have shown toward each woman and in the way you targeted them.
If they weren’t classed as extremely vulnerable, then they were certainly vulnerable.
I have the victims’ statements, and for two of these women it had a significant emotional impact on them and caused them significant emotional suffering.
This had a negative strain on the relationships with their then partners.
For these reasons I will impose a period of imprisonment but I will take into account that your English is very poor and you have no previous convictions.
You will feel very isolated in prison because of your poor English and it will be hard for you, so I will make it a shorter sentence.
