Description
An inmate groped two prison officers while they served her food in her cell, after being locked up for sexually assaulting a nurse.
Katana Paris who identifies as a woman, assaulted the male and female staff members at HMP Forest Bank in Salford last year. The female officer was serving Paris, 27, breakfast with the help of two inmates. Paris walked towards her and touched her inappropriately.
The following day, while being served lunch by a male prison officer, she reached through the hatch in her cell door and grabbed his genitals. Paris, who was part way through serving a three-year sentence at the time for sexual assaulting a nurse, admitted two counts of sexual assault. At Manchester Crown Court, she was handed a six-month sentence to be added to her prison time.
Prosecuting, Megan Edwards said that on the day of the incident, a female prison officer was on breakfast duty at around 7.50am. "She approached the defendant's cell and unlocked the door in order to serve her breakfast," Mrs Edwards said. "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 helping gave Paris with her breakfast. She then 'jumped up and down like she was 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..." She he 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. A day later, a male custody officer was serving lunch when he went to Paris' cell. She was 'quite aggressive', the court heard. As he unlocked the hatch to her door and passed her food through, she reached her right hand out and grabbed his genitals.
"He immediately felt violated and used his body strength to push her back into her cell," Ms Edwards said. Paris has convictions for 87 offences - including sexual assault by touching. She was previously handed a 37-month sentence after pulling a nurse towards her genitals while in hospital, the court heard.
Mitigating, Rochelle Collins said her client was suffering with mental health problems and emotional regularity problems at the time. "She is extremely remorseful and tells me this happened at a time when her mental health was at its lowest," she said. "She doesn’t want to continue with these types of behaviours. There has been no further complaint whilst she has been in custody."
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 pre-sentence 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. She will be on the sex offender register for five years.