Syrian refugee blames ‘war trauma’ for six sex attacks in subways
A SYRIAN refugee carried out a series of sex attacks a month after he and his family were given special ‘fasttrack’ asylum into Britain.
Hasan Alkhabbaz claimed he was suffering post-traumatic stress after seeing his sister killed in a bomb attack.
But psychiatrists who examined him found there was nothing wrong and a court heard he derived sexual pleasure from seeing the horrified faces of his victims.
yesterday Alkhabbaz, 22, was jailed for 16 months for groping six women in three subways in Paddington, central London.
Alkhabbaz arrived in Britain in October last year and received a suspended sentence in May for a similar offence committed in March. He was arrested again at Heathrow on September 8 this year as he tried to board a flight to Egypt.
He admitted six charges of sexual assault between november 14 last year and March 3.
Judge Jeffery Pegden said: ‘During the four months that you committed these six offences, you demonstrated predatory behaviour by continually targeting lone, vulnerable women and sexually assaulting them in underpasses in London.
‘These offences formed a pattern of offending and were committed when the women were alone and isolated. They were committed in broad daylight and must have required a degree of planning, as you loitered in the vicinity of the underpasses waiting for a victim.
‘Moreover, there was an escalation in the aggression that you used.’ Daniel Pawson-Pounds, prosecuting, said he carried out the first attack on november 14 at 11.05am.
‘A woman entered the subway, she had just left her boyfriend’s home. As she walks under she became aware a man walking towards her that man was the defendant.
‘They passed each other but she became aware he had turned around and began to follow her.
‘Despite her suspicions, she continued to walk through the underpass. As she began to climb the stairs to exit, the defendant approached her from behind and grabbed her bottom.
‘She screamed and turned to confront the defendant and he then ran back into the underpass towards a different exit.’
The victim said she ‘specifically doesn’t use the subway any more because she feels it’s unsafe’ and is now anxious in public spaces.
He struck again four days later, this time placing his hands between his victim’s legs from behind.
The woman was on her way to a job interview and not being able to attend damaged her career prospects, the court heard.
His four subsequent attacks were increasingly more aggressive and intimate. After his fifth attack on March 1, his victim said she felt ‘completely demeaned in every way’, and had struggled to finish university work.
The sixth attack happened two days later and his victim said she ‘felt alone and vulnerable’ after the assault and blames it for the break- down of the relationship with her boyfriend. Alkhabbaz’s barrister Kenneth newman told Southwark Crown Court: ‘Mr Alkhabbaz lost a sister in Syria due to bombing and i am told by Mr Alkhabbaz’s father they were under siege for a number of months.’ He said Alkhabbaz suffered PTSD after fleeing under the Un refugee Programme. ‘He is the youngest of five children.
‘He has a brother and sister in Egypt, one in Dubai,’ Mr newman added.
‘One sister who was a doctor was killed by a bomb to a building in Syria. He witnessed the bombing of the building in which his sister died. His family were being subjected to ongoing bombing. Both Mr Alkhabbaz and his father described to me seeing dead bodies of friends and colleagues and walking over dead bodies. Something that no one should really have to see.’
Alkhabbaz, from islington, north London, is subject to a sexual harm prevention order.
‘Demeaned in every way’