AN Asylum seeker strangled and sexually assaulted a woman after he followed her on her walk home after following her out of a nightclub.
Fawaz Alsamaou waited until the woman was under a under a railway bridge, before he tried to strangle her and put his hands under her dress, a court heard.
The terrified woman was heading home from a nightclub at 4am when she noticed a man was following her.
Alsamaou, 33, tailed the victim out of Pulse nightclub in Cardiff city centre as she made her way to the student area.
The Syrian refugee gripped the woman by the neck under a railway bridge, forced his hand under her dress and grabbed her crotch whilst he sexually assaulted her for seven seconds.
The horrified victim pushed her attacker away and ran from the scene to alert the cops, said Prosecutor Tabitha Walker.
The victim told the court how the assault has had a “lasting impact” on her anxiety.
“I’m always looking over my shoulder and thinking the worst. At the start I didn’t leave my house for six weeks. I feel really uneasy when it’s dark outside.
“It has really affected my social life and I don’t go out like I used to. I suffer with my mental health generally but this incident really hit that harder.
“I can barely sleep and I have nightmares relating to it. I’m working to get over it but this isn’t something you can just recover from. The impact has pulled me back from doing everyday things and stopped me going out with my friends.”
She said she couldn’t return to her office for two of three months after the attack as she was overwhelmed with the anxiety of being in public and surrounded by lots of people.
“The time I had to have off work caused additional stress in my life and additional meetings with HR,” she continued.
The police identified Alsamaou, from Lockwood Huddersfield, by combing through CCTV.
He admitted to sexual assault and intentional strangulation.
Mitigating barrister David Pinnell said that despite pleading guilty, Alsamaou wasn’t accepting that he was guilty of the offences.
The barrister added that the sex predator would be deported after his conviction at Newport Crown Court.
Judge Celia Hughes said: “It was a horrible attack on a woman alone at night in Cardiff. She was entitled to walk home alone at night without being attacked by you, a predatory man.
“You say that you’re a practising Muslim but your behaviour that night casts doubt on the practise of your faith.
“It must have been a petrifying incident for her and had lasting impact on her life.”
The judge sentenced Alsamaou, who has no previous convictions in the UK, to 37 months in prison for sexual assault.
