A man who drove around Weymouth at 3am looking for a drunk woman to sexually abuse has been found guilty at trial.

As previously reported in the Echo, Hassan Abou Hayleh, aged 39, has been on trial at Bournemouth Crown Court since Monday, November 11.

A jury has now found him guilty of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman on Maiden Street in Weymouth's town centre in the early hours of December 18, 2022.

The jury heard from the victim, police officers, and the defendant and saw CCTV of the incident.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the jury that she had been out with friends. They drank at pubs before going to a nightclub.

At around 3.25am, the victim called her dad to pick her up and went to wait for him outside a shop.

She was approached by Hayleh, whom she did not know. He put his hand down her trousers, lifting it, and touching her bottom underneath her underwear.

Hayleh hugged her and asked her to get inside his car which she refused.

She raised the alarm with three people she saw walking nearby, telling them that Hayleh had touched her.

Her dad arrived as Hayleh drove away. He told the jury he saw his daughter with the three strangers, distraught and crying.

Following the jury's verdict, Judge Robert Pawson said: "On the evidence before me you are potentially very dangerous man.

"You were driving around in the early hours on a Sunday morning hoping that you would find exactly what you did find - a young and vulnerable drunk woman who you wanted to get into your car so that you could sexually abuse her.

"I shudder to think what might have happened."

When Hayleh gave evidence, he claimed that he had been driving to buy cigarettes, had seen the victim lying on the pavement and wanted to help her. He said he noticed that her trousers were down, exposing part of her bottom, so he reached down and pulled them up - adding that the incident was a 'misunderstanding'.

Hayleh, a refugee who has been in the UK for four years, will be sentenced on January 10 at Bournemouth Crown Court.

He has been released on bail but must abide by a curfew and notify the sex offender registry.

Hayleh, of Wentworth Close, Weymouth, had claimed he was just trying to help the woman, saying the incident was a  'misunderstanding.