Moment ‘serial’ predator targets schoolgirl before being chased off by her father
Police are appealing for other victims to come forward amid fears ‘deliberate’ and ‘methodical’ predator attacked others
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This is the horrifying moment a predator followed a teenage schoolgirl before sexually assaulting her in broad daylight.
Police have shared the chilling footage of Irtiza Abbas targeting a 15-year-old as they appeal for other victims to come forward.
The 25-year-old, who has been jailed for two years for assaulting two young women, can be seen closely following his female victims in two separate incidents in Birmingham.
The attacker loitered near Aston University before following a lone student in January.
He followed the 22-year-old along Dartmouth Middleway for a while to make sure she was alone before he grabbed her and assaulted her.
A few months later he struck again, this time targeting the teenage schoolgirl in the Perry Barr area of the city.
CCTV shows him following her closely along a street and looking around to make sure he was alone.
Only when he was sure that there was no-one else around, he grabbed the girl and assaulted her.
The 15-year-old bravely rang her father who was luckily driving nearby. They drove around the area and spotted Abbas, but following a tussle, Abbas escaped and fled the scene.
Abbas, who pleaded guilty to assaulting both women, was this week sentenced to two years in prison at Birmingham Crown Court.
However, police fear he may have struck before and are appealing for other victims to come forward.
Detective Inspector Joe Davenport at West Mercia Police said: “We strongly believe due to the nature of the offences that Abbas may have committed more offences.
“CCTV has shown him lingering on the streets and carefully selecting his victims. He would follow them to make sure they were on their own before he struck.
“Although he’s pleaded guilty to two offences there’s a real time line gap and we have really strong suspicions that he may have offended again and again.
“Thanks to the support of the victims and their bravery and our teams’ efforts in tracing every single piece of CCTV that we could, we’ve managed to take a serial offender and a potentially dangerous man, whose offences were deliberate, methodical and repeated, off the streets of Birmingham.
“If anyone feels that something similar has happened to them and that they’ve not come forward before, we’d ask them to reconsider. Please contact me or one of my team and we promise that we will take your account seriously.”
Victims, who receive life-time anonymity, can contact West Mercia Police police by calling 101 or using their Live Chat function online, quoting crime number 20/412643/24.