A MAN who subjected a student to a sustained sex attack on her doorstep after following her home from a night out in Leamington has been jailed.
Bikramjit Baden had denied sexually assaulting the young woman during an incident in March, but a jury at Warwick Crown Court found him guilty by a unanimous verdict.
Baden, 39, of Victoria Street, Leamington, was jailed for three years and ordered to register as a sex offender for life.
During his trial, the jury heard how on March 5 the victim went out to a Leamington night club with a group of fellow university students.
She left around 1.30am to make her way home along a route partly covered by CCTV cameras. At a junction she noticed Baden and as she passed him he said: “Hi pretty lady.”
She ignored him and continued but he began to follow her, making further comments which she also ignored,
When Baden followed her onto the drive of her home the student, who was ‘shaking and terrified,’ told him: “You don’t live here. I think you should leave.”
But as she put her key in the lock to open the door, he came up behind her and punched her to the head before continuing to rain blows on her as she cried out for help.
Baden grabbed her by her hair and tried to pull her to the ground. He then grabbed her round the waist and put his other hand up her skirt and sexually assault her.
But having heard her shouts her housemate opened the door and Baden fled as she ran inside.
The police were called and a police dog followed Baden’s scent from the scene until losing it in a park near his home.
But a CCTV operator who recognised him searched the Loose Box bar website and retrieved a photograph of Baden, known as Bik and a CCTV camera showed leaving at 1.46am that morning.
Baden, who said he was well-known and popular around Leamington acting as a photographer for a website, denied being responsible for the attack.
He claimed he was on medication which had affected his sexuality and Nick Devine, defending said prior to the incident Baden had been ‘of positive good character,’ having worked for a long time in a profession which required regular CRB checks.
He also carried out community work through a Sikh temple, and was the primary carer for his elderly mother.
Jailing Baden, Judge Richard Griffith-Jones told him: “You have committed a very grave crime. This attack on an intelligent young woman has all the hallmarks of the sort of nightmare which so worries young women when they are out.
“You were persistent, oppressive and frightening then when she was at a very vulnerable place you attacked her. This was a sustained and serious attack, and she had every reason to fear she was going to be raped.
“This will have a lasting effect on the way she lives her life in the future.”
