A man has been jailed for sexually assaulting a teenager and woman in the Aston and Perry Barr area of Birmingham this year.
Irtiza Abbas of Lozells Road, Birmingham pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a schoolgirl and a university student after compelling CCTV evidence showed him selecting and following his victims.
Both victims have bravely allowed officers to tell their story and show CCTV in the hope that anyone else who feels they’ve been a victim and hasn’t come forward to do so.
On the afternoon of Tuesday 16 January, the 25-year-old hung around the area near to Aston University and followed a woman who was walking on her own.
He followed the 22-year-old along Dartmouth Middleway for a while to make sure she was definitely on her own and that there was no other person in the street and then grabbed her and assaulted her.
And on Tuesday 16 April he followed a 15-year-old schoolgirl as she walked home in the Perry Barr area.
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.
Officers painstakingly pieced CCTV together linking the assaults and a suspect was identified.
Abbas was arrested from his address in Lozells on 22 April and clothing matching the description in the
CCTV was recovered. Although he didn’t admit his guilt in interview, he knew the evidence against him was so compelling that he pleaded guilty at court.
He was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court to two years in jail.
The investigating officer, Detective Inspector Joe Davenport, 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.”
We are committed to identifying individuals who pose the highest risk of harm to women and girls, and actively managing them to prevent or reduce offending.