Abdul Gani, 32, of Langsdale Street, Everton, groped the girl while she was with her nine-year-old cousin in Jim’s News on Fountains Road, Kirkdale.
The girls were standing there selecting crisp packets when the pervert walked by and groped her bottom.
On Monday, August 1, prosecutor Olivia Beesley told Liverpool Crown Court how Gani turned around to wink and smile at the girl.
Ms. Beesley stated: “He was nearby when she approached the till. She walked past him after paying for the items, and he groped her bottom again.
At this point, she dashed out of the store before returning for her cousin, who was completely unaware of what had occurred.”
When the victim returned home and told her uncle what had happened, he went to the shop and requested to see the CCTV footage.
Staff at the shop pointed out where the suspect, who did not work there, was thought to be.
Ms Beesley stated that the police were called and that “they found Gani unconscious outside his address having been assaulted.”
The defendant, who is from Sudan, was interviewed on May 7 and claimed he was at home with two other people at the time of the incident.
He denied being the person seen on CCTV footage from the shop.
Gani was convicted of sexually assaulting a child by touching following a magistrates court trial, but his case was transferred to Liverpool Crown Court due to the gravity of the offence.
Gani refused to leave his prison cell on the day of the trial to appear via video link, and he has also failed to cooperate with the Probation Service in the preparation of a pre-sentence report.
He was not legally represented, having fired his lawyer during his trial, but Judge Stuart Driver, QC, said it was in the interests of justice to proceed to sentence given his pattern of non-engagement.
The judge sentenced him in his absence, saying: “I’ve concluded that he’s a dangerous criminal. According to the probation report, he “poses a high risk of causing harm to children and committing further sexual offences.
Judge Driver sentenced Gani to ten months in prison, stating that he could not make an extended determinate sentence because Gani had no previous qualifying offences and the appropriate sentence would not be more than four years.
He stated that the case required persistence and was exacerbated by the victim’s impact and the fact that it was committed in the presence of her young cousin.
Judge Driver sentenced him to ten years on the Sex Offenders Register and imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and a restraining order, both for ten years.
