A man pretended to help a teenager after she fell down the stairs at a subway station, but instead dragged her into a basement where he sexually assaulted her.
Sharif Abbas, 31, abused the 19-year-old after she fell down a flight of stairs at Bond Street station in central London around 6am on June 16, 2019.
The young woman broke her wrist in the fall and suffered a serious head injury, exposing part of her skull.
Abbas approached her as she sat down to recover, pretending to be a Transport for London employee.
He donned a TfL safety jacket, and after telling her to wait for him, he explored an empty basement nearby.
Instead of calling 911, Abbas led the woman, who was bleeding profusely, into the basement where he told her to examine her injuries, whereupon he attacked her.
When Abbas entered the basement of the building, he unknowingly triggered a silent alarm, when police arrived on the scene, officers found Abbas attacking the woman.
Officers found him standing behind the victim with his hands under her clothes and the fly of his jeans undone.
Sorry, the video was not found
He had taken her under a covered walkway where they were not visible to passers-by at street level, police said.
The woman was later taken to a hospital in west London where she was treated for her head injury and underwent surgery on her wrist.
She has since made a full recovery, according to the Met Police.
When Abbas was questioned by detectives, he said it never occurred to him to press an emergency button while trying to help the woman.
He claimed he tried to call an ambulance but could not get a signal, Abbas also claimed the victim asked him not to call an ambulance.
However, CCTV showed Abbas had his phone to his ear for the 45 minutes he abducted the woman and no 999 call was made, nor provided any first aid, police said.
The safety vest he was wearing was one he used two years earlier when conducting surveys of bus passengers, but at the time of the attack he was unemployed.
Abbas told detectives he had it with him in case he went for a run or in case he ran into “an accident or something.”
Yesterday, Abbas, from Haringey, north London, was jailed at Southwark Crown Court and four years after he was found guilty of kidnapping and assault at a previous hearing.
Judge Gregory Perrins sentenced Abbas, saying: “I have no doubt she… [the police officer] not attended at that time, you [Abbas] would have resorted to a more serious assault.’
Detective Constable Nigel Pacquette, the investigating officer of the Met Police’s Central West Command Unit, described Abbas’s actions as “sinister” and “predatory.”
“It is deplorable to take advantage of a seriously injured woman, especially at a time when she needed urgent medical attention,” he said.
“I am aware that the details of this case, and the predatory nature of perpetrators such as Abbas, will inspire fear in many women. We are working hard to get these violators off our streets.”
DC Pacquette also paid tribute to the victim’s bravery.
He added: ‘The young lady targeted by Abbas has been incredibly brave, determined and patient during this investigation and the legal proceedings.
She no longer lives in the UK and was forced to return to Britain and quarantine to participate in the trial because of Abbas’s not guilty plea.
“I applaud her actions to ensure that other women are spared this man’s perverted attentions.”
Contact our news team by sending an email to: [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page.