AN Afghan interpreter has been jailed after sexually assaulting a pregnant woman in Colchester.

Jamshid Asif abused the victim, claiming he misunderstood the “smiles and lipstick” on women in Colchester as sexual advances.

Asif, 28, of Meyrick Crescent, Colchester, moved to the UK in September with his wife and two children.

He was given permission to settle by the Ministry of Defence, after serving in the British Army.

Chelmsford Crown Court was told interpreters are often killed by the Taleban if they remain in Afghanistan.

The court heard on January 4 Asif went looking for sex as he was frustrated by a “lack of action” because his wife was pregnant.

Mark Lakin, prosecuting, told the court yesterday the victim entered a convenience store at The Willows and Asif deliberately rubbed against her.

He said: “He (Asif) followed her.

“As she went to her car, he was behind her.”

Asif began asking, then demanding and ordering she have sex with him.

He grabbed her arm both before and after she got in her car.

She told him to stop and told him she was pregnant, but he then groped her and forced a kiss on her before she managed to get away.

Asif, who suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and had a spell in The Lakes, was caught after he told mental health professionals at Colchester General Hospital what he had done.

Frank O’Toole, mitigating, told the court Asif was “deeply ashamed” and claimed there had been a “cultural misunderstanding”

about what was acceptable and what was not acceptable.

He said: “It is unacceptable there, but grossly unacceptable here.”

Judge Martyn Levett jailed Asif for eight months.

He said: “This happened in a public place and you made her feel exceptionally uncomfortable.

“You were not satisfied just touching her, you persistently followed her to her car.

“You repeatedly questioned her with a mantra ‘do you want sex’ and not satisfied by her answer, you grabbed her by the arm.

“You terrified her into believing she would have to co-operate and submit to your demands.”

He added: “A woman is entitled to go about her daily life in freedom.

“You felt British women you sawwere approaching you.

“You then made assumptions because women in Colchester present themselves differently to how they do in Afghanistan.

“You felt sex was freely available in England and said you misunderstood their smiles and lipstick as invitations to have sex with you.”

Asif will remain on the sex offenders’ register for ten years.