An 18 year-old man has been sentenced for the attempted rape of a student.
Last Thursday, local teenager Jacob Feldman was sent to jail for three years and eight months by a judge at Leeds Crown Court.
The 19 year-oldstudentwas attacked by Feldman in the early hours of 1st November last year, on Ash Crescent in Headingley.
The court heard that she was walking home alone when Feldman ambushed her, clasping his hand over her mouth and pushing her to the ground.
Feldman ripped the girl’s Halloween skeleton costume from the throat to the crotch, telling her: “Don’t shout, it will be easier.”
The man fled the scene when residents from a nearby house came outside to help, having beendisturbed by her screaming.
Feldman was found by police hiding in a cupboard in nearby student accommodation, the court heard. He had climbed into bed with two students during the course of the night, one of whom had been asleep.
The court heard that before attempting to rape the student, Feldman had taken drugs and consumed large amounts of alcohol. Earlier that evening, he had also acted aggressively towards a girl he had previously shared a one-night-stand with, pushing her into a bush after she snubbed him.
Judge Rodney Jameson, QC, told the court that the victim had resigned herself to the certainty that she would be raped. He said he believed Feldman would have carried out the rape had the nearby residents not been disturbed, frightening him off.
Defence lawyer, Kama Melly, mitigated that Feldman was immature for his age, had no previous convictions of a sexual nature, and had come from a difficult family background.
Detective Inspector John Dexter, of North West Leeds Division, said: “Feldman put the victim through a terrifying ordeal when he attacked her as she walked home alone in the early hours of the morning. His behaviour that night shows he is clearly a very dangerous individual. We hope it will provide some degree of comfort to the victim to know that he has now been brought to justice.”
Ellie Parkes, in Court.