A catering manager at Watford Hospital who pestered and sexually assaulted a junior colleague avoided going straight to jail today.

Mohamad Dinally, 39, was told by Judge Marie Catterson that what he did to his teenage victim was an "abuse of power".

But she took into account his previous good character and passed a suspended 21 month sentence for 18 months.

Dinally, who was sacked from his job, must abide by an electronically-monitored curfew between 7pm and 6am for four months and has to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

Sitting at St Albans Crown Court, Judge Catterson told Dinally he had subjected his victim to a "persistent course of inappropriate and sexist comments".

In November last year, the married father of one exposed himself to her in a staff room, saying: "Is this enough for you". It caused the 19-year-old to flee in tears.

On 12 December he arranged a staff outing to a restaurant in Luton. On the way back to Watford, they were in the rear of a car when he covered his legs and placed her hand on his penis.

Then, some time in the spring of this year, Dinally put his hand down the 19-year-old's top and touched her breasts.

He was arrested after she told another woman at work in May this year.

Dinally, of Watson Court, Stadium Way, Watford, appeared for sentence, having been convicted of exposure and two counts of sexual assault. He was of previous good character.

Oliver Snodin, defending, asked for a suspended sentence. He said Dinally still denies the offence, however he accepts the verdict of the jury and is willing to discuss with the probation service what he has been convicted of.

"This behaviour was out of character. Probation has assessed him as having a low-level of risk of reoffending," he said.