Donna O’Loughlin, who was sexually assaulted over a three-hour-period by Mohammed Kashif, said she has been unable to work since the incident and now feels “violated all over again” by his Workplace Relations Commision (WRC) payout.
Married father-of-two Kashif was awarded the money this week over his 2023 sacking by bosses at supermarket chain Aldi.
The supermarket dismissed him after learning he had been convicted eight weeks earlier of sexually assaulting co-worker Donna at a separate job he had in the Kebabish chipper in Foynes, Co Limerick.
Mohammed Kashif was awarded €5,000
“I feel completely violated by the WRC’s decision,” Donna told the Sunday World.
“I felt violated the night he attacked me, I felt violated and humiliated in the court when the judge gave him a suspended sentence and now here I am again experiencing another violation … that he is being paid off the back of my suffering. Because that’s what this is.
“I’m fuming but I want to thank Aldi for sacking him. They did absolutely the right thing as far as I am concerned. And I’m very disappointed they have been punished for it. I am really upset for them, for me and for other victims like me.
“We’re dragged through the courts, we’re the ones who put ourselves out there, but the law in this country is so clearly set up to work in favour of abusers. He has proven himself to be an absolute danger to any woman he works with.
“Aldi chose to protect his female co-workers by dismissing him. Why should they be punished for that?
“Why should he be rewarded? What kind of country do we live in? It’s no country for women and victims of sexual abuse.”
Details of Kashif’s sexual assault on Donna on her first day working at the Kebabish chipper on May 20, 2022 were revealed before Kilmallock District Court at his sentencing hearing in December 2022.
Detective Elaine O’Keefe said Kashif had “slid his hand over her buttocks and then slapped her buttocks quite firmly. He asked her for kisses and for sex”.
Detective O’Keefe said as Ms O’Loughlin bent forward in the course of her work, Mr Kashif “twice grabbed her vagina”.
The detective said that Ms O’Loughlin pushed Mr Kashif away and “he laughed at her”.
“He grabbed her breast and rubbed himself against her and asked, ‘can you feel my erection?’
Mr Kashif pleaded guilty to sexual assault just before the case was due to be heard.
Donna told the court the assault by Kashif was “aggressive and violating”.
“I was repeatedly laughed at and made to feel terrible and worthless,” she said.
Donna chats with Patrick O’Connell
She said the experience had affected her relationship with her husband and two children, one of whom is severely disabled.
Having left the job in the fast-food restaurant, Donna told the court that she had tried other employment but the experience haunted her and she feared she would never be able to work again.
Despite the grave effects the sexual assault had on Donna, married father-of-two Kashif received a two month suspended sentence. He avoided being placed on the sex offenders register as the custodial sentence was a suspended one.
At Donna’s insistence, and after she waived her anonymity, reporting restrictions were lifted so Kashif could be publicly named.
“I waived my anonymity,” Donna said this week, “because I wanted people to know he is a sexual predator.
“They told me my anonymity was there to protect me but it wasn’t.
“If I hadn’t done that that day, he would’ve walked out of there and no-one would have known his name or anything about him. He’d have gone back to his life.
“And because I waived my anonymity, Aldi were able to say he isn’t a suitable person to be around our female employees and they were right. He isn’t.
“Honestly, the decision to punish Aldi for that is shameful, it’s sickening and it’s stomach churning. They said in their report that he was 50 per cent responsible for his dismissal from Aldi. They’re wrong, he’s 100 per cent responsible.”
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – September 23rd
During the WRC hearing, the adjudicators heard that Kashif, who at the time of his conviction also worked as a cashier at Aldi, told his line manager about his conviction, and that he was allowed to keep working for eight weeks after receiving the two-month suspended prison sentence.
However, when the report “came to the attention of higher management” in February 2023, he was suspended on full pay.
Following a disciplinary proceeding and appeals process, the supermarket chain dismissed him.
Aldi’s lawyers submitted to the WRC that Kashif’s contract of employment provided for summary dismissal for any criminal conviction “other than a minor motoring offence”, and he had admitted the conviction.
In her judgement, WRC adjudicator Patsy Doyle found there had been no regard paid to Mr Kashif’s “unblemished record” or the eight weeks of “uneventful service” after he disclosed the conviction to his bosses.
She found Aldi was “overwhelmed” by seeing the newspaper report at a later stage and “got lost in its anticipation of harm to the business”.
She upheld Mr Kashif’s complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, but found the complainant bore 50 per cent responsibility for his termination.
She awarded him €5,000 in compensation, a sum equivalent to two months’ gross wages.
When approached by the Sunday World on Thursday, Kashif said: “They [Aldi] kicked me out of the work. They could have sorted something else out.
“It was not the right thing to do and the Commission made the decision about it. It’s not my decision.” Asked whether the €5,000 would be better spent if it had been directed to his victim, Kashif responded: “I don’t want to talk about it. If somebody legal comes to me, I will talk about it then.”
