Cambridge forklift driver jailed after sexual assaults
Mindaugas Vaitekunas, 44, of Wisbech Road, March was jailed for 18 months
A forklift driver who sexually assaulted two colleagues has been jailed for 18 months.
Mindaugas Vaitekunas, 44, of Wisbech Road, March, held an informal supervisory position and used this to inappropriately touch female colleagues, make sexual remarks and assault them.
The women raised their concerns with their boss. Eventually, Vaitekunas was reported to police in July 2023 for alleged sexual assaults between July 2019 and February 2022 at a factory in Littleport.
Police heard the incidents had begun with sexual insults and harassment on a daily basis.
When one woman was standing at a line of washed potatoes at the factory Vaitekunas began pressing himself into her and propositioned her for sex.
The woman felt humiliated and said she felt panicked whenever she saw Vaitekunas who would call women “tramps, alcoholics and degraders”.
He would deliberately trip the women up by sticking his foot out, then grabbing them in a sexually inappropriate manner as he “caught” them.
The women warned him they would report him to the police, but it did not stop his behaviour.
Vaitekunas denied two counts of sexual assault but was found guilty on Thursday, 27 August, following a trial at Cambridge Crown Court.
He was handed 18 months in prison for each of the offences, to run concurrently, and ordered to pay £500 compensation to the victims.
He was also issued with a restraining order for three years and a requirement to register with the police under the Sexual Offences Act for 10 years.
DC Daria Cusnir of the Prevention and Vulnerability Hub said: “This type of behaviour should never be tolerated. These brave women did the right thing in calling out the man who made their working life intolerable.
“I hope the sentence will reassure both the victims and women everywhere that this type of behaviour must never be accepted – it should always be challenged and reported.”