A MAN who carried out sexual attacks on two young women after prowling the streets of Leamington in the early hours of the morning looking for victims has been jailed.
And a judge at Warwick Crown Court praised the courage of Marius Soloman’s victims in coming forward and making statements which led to him being caught.
The 27-year-old, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting and robbing a young woman near Leamington town centre and sexually assaulting another just an hour later.
After finding that he poses a risk to other women in the future, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano imposed an extended sentence on Soloman, who was ordered to register as a sex offender for life.
He was jailed for nine years, and will have to serve at least six years of that before the Parole Board will even consider releasing him.
If it is not considered safe to free him at that stage, he may have to serve up to the full nine years and will then be on licence for the rest of that time – and for a further eight years.
Prosecutor Caroline Harris said in November last year Soloman attacked both young women, who happened to have been to the same Leamington night club, within an hour of each-other.
He first targeted a 20-year-old who had drunk more than she should have done, and was sick after leaving the club because she had been unable to find her friends inside.
As she walked through the town Soloman approached her, asking her if she was OK and whether she wanted a cigarette, which she declined and said she was OK for him to leave her.
She thought he was just being considerate, and did not realise he had then followed her for some distance until she found a suitable place to be sick, after which he approached her again.
He forced her against a wall and kissed and touch her intimately.
“She made attempts to push him away. She thought she was going to be raped. Eventually she managed to get away, and he didn’t pursue her,” said Miss Harris.
But Soloman continued to prowl the area, walking around for about an hour until he saw another 20-year-old who was sitting waiting for a friend to whom she had given her key.
She noticed him doing the same circuit twice, which she thought was odd, and he then approached her and sat next to her, asked if she smoked, which she did not, and began talking to her.
He then touched her face, leg and then her breast.
She protested and kept telling him to stop, and when he put his fingers in her mouth to try to get her to shut up, she bit them.
“That angered him, and he dragged her into an alleyway by her hair, and she thought she was going to be raped,” added Miss Harris.
Realising she could not fight him off, she tried to talk him out of what she feared was about to happen, but he threatened that he had a knife and would kill her if she did not shut up.
As he kept hold of her, Soloman sexually assaulted her before, hearing people coming down the street, she kicked him and ran to them shouting for help.
While one of the group of men stayed with her and called the police, two others tried to chase Soloman, but lost him.
When Soloman was arrested the next day, still wearing the same clothes CCTV recording had shown him wearing, he denied the offences, claiming his first victim had dropped her phone and that he had only spoken to the other young woman.
Miss Harris added although Soloman only had an excess alcohol conviction in this country, he had convictions for robberies in 2011 and 2017 in his native Romania.
Delroy Henry, for Soloman, said he acknowledged his behaviour had been “absolutely disgraceful” and he was ashamed.
Jailing Soloman, Judge de Bertodano told him: “You behaved that night as the sort of sexual predator every woman fears when she is out on her own at night.
“People like you make it impossible for women to do what they are entitled to do, to be out on the streets at night in safety. These two young women lived through every woman’s nightmare of an unknown man approaching them at night and sexually assaulting them.
“This is an offence which clearly involved a significant degree of planning. One only has to look at you prowling the streets looking for women to target, with the clear sole purpose of carrying out horrific sexual attacks.
“You were demonstrating that night the worst form of male sexual entitlement.”
And the judge added: “I would like to commend these two young women. The only way we get convictions against people like this is if they have the courage to give statements for these cases to come before the court.”
