A takeaway worker who stalked and sexually assaulted a woman on the street at night was allowed to walk out of court a free man after his defence argued that he was “the sole earner” in his family and jailing him “would have a significant impact”.
Twenty-three-year-old Javed Miah, of Lees Street in Shaw, attacked his victim in Oldham around 9 o’clock at night on December 11th, 2018, having first followed her through the street for some time and asked her for the time, the Manchester Evening News reported this week.
However, defence lawyer Saul Comish told Tameside Magistrates’ Court that the ambush had been “quite opportunistic” and that as a married man “in employment at a takeaway” with a young child and as “the sole earner for his family”, a prison term “would have a significant impact”.
Recounting the night of the attack, prosecutor Peter Conroy had told the court that the victim ”noticed there was a male walking behind her, and he bumped into her. Her right shoulder hurt and she lost her breath because of fear that she did not know what the defendant was going to do.”
What Miah went on to do, after following her for another minute, was close the distance between them and grope her.
Conroy said the young woman “was shocked and frightened” and “told him it was not right for him to do this. He had his arms around her chest and then the next thing she knew, she was on the floor on top of him. He lifted his right hand towards her crotch and started to move her hand up towards her chest.
“She said ‘my mind froze, I was in total shock’. She managed to get out her mobile phone and use the SOS function to call 999. This let out a loud beeping sound and this forced him to instantly let go and run away down an alleyway. She had said nothing to him to warrant giving him any right of doing this.”
In a victim impact statement, the assaulted woman told the court that “Since the assault, I have not been able to leave the house or work.”
She said: “I do not know if he knows my route to work. I am scared to walk anywhere. I will have to rely on my friends or family to drive me to work out of fear.”
But sentencing judge David Quarnby, despite conceding that “this was a cowardly and sustained attack on a young woman late at night,” decided to leave the predator at large, handing him a sentence of just six months and suspending it for two years– meaning he will only have to serve it, in part, if he commits further offences within a two-year period.
Miah will also be placed on the Sex Offenders Register — although only for seven years — and required to pay a small £213 fee in costs, and perform some unpaid work.