A CITY restaurant worker has been jailed for two years and six months for a sex attack on a young mother he lured into a back room on the pretext of sorting out a problem over an order.

Mani Mani from Commercial Road, Hereford, pinned the woman against a fridge, where he kissed her and indecently assaulted her, Worcester Crown Court heard.

The married 26-year-old admitted the assault on the brink of going to trial after previously denying it.

Judge Toby Hooper QC told Mani he had caused emotional injury and inflicted a “serious physical insult” upon the woman when she visited the Golden Galleon fish and chip shop.

It had been an “abuse of a customer’s trust”, said the judge, who added: “Our society does not tolerate this treatment of women and punishes it severely.”

The judge also expressed astonishment at a statement made by a man who gave a reference for Mani which described the allegations as “laughable”.

Kevin Grego told the court that the victim had been out with her cousin and aunt in Hereford on December 9, 2013.

She later visited the fish and chip shop, which is linked to an Indian restaurant above, to tell staff that a burger had been missing from an order she had placed on the internet.

Mani appeared from the restaurant upstairs and was “somewhat over-familiar” with her, at one point holding her hand and then kissing her on the cheek, said Mr Grego.

She thought the behaviour was due to “cultural differences” and she agreed to go with him to a back office, where there was supposed to be a computer to check the order.

But there were no computers and it was a chilling storage area. Mr Grego said Mani held her neck with his hand, ending up with her back against a fridge.

She told him: “I can’t do this. I’m married with two kids.”

She described how he was “slobbering” on her face, put his tongue in her mouth and touched her intimately.

Eventually, to get free, she said she would meet him later in a pub and she left the premises.

When interviewed by police, Mani denied making any sexual advances and said that the woman had tried to hug him.

Mark Sharman, defending, said Mani, had mistakenly thought the woman was being “flirtatious” and he was attracted to her.