‘It was fear, fear that this would be the end’
Woman dragged into churchyard by sex attacker armed with knife
A MAN who dragged a woman into a churchyard, held a knife to her throat and tried to take her trousers off has been jailed.
The victim feared she would be raped and killed when Jonathan Kabala pulled her into some bushes on October 2 last year.
The 41-year-old preyed on the woman after spotting her walking alone in Bolton town centre.
Kabala followed her along Silverwell Street before he struck just before 7am.
He later told police he left his home that morning with the intention of ‘finding a person to set upon.’
Horrifying CCTV footage showed Kabala run up behind the woman, grab her and drag her into the grounds of Bolton Parish Church.
He then pulled her into some bushes.
Kabala, of Chadwick Street, The Haulgh, held a knife to her neck and attempted to undo her trousers.
Bolton Crown Court previously heard how the victim attempted to fight him off with a metal travel mug she had been carrying.
But he managed to get her on the floor for a second time.
One witness called the police while another filmed part of the incident on his phone.
A jury previously heard how while Kabala was distracted, the woman managed to wrestle the knife from his grasp and throw it towards a witness.
The witness then threw the knife away and ordered Kabala to leave.
He calmly left the scene but was later tracked down by police.
When asked for his reason behind the attack, Kabala said ‘people had been calling him a girl and insulting him’ and this was his way of ‘asserting himself and making things right.’
Despite his admissions in interview, he pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, kidnapping with intent to commit a sexual offence, threatening someone with a bladed article and possession of a bladed article.
But following a four-day trial, a jury took three hours to find him guilty of all offences.
In a moving impact statement read out on Friday at Teesside Crown Court, the victim described the moment she thought she was going to die.
She said: “I was attacked in the street. I was simply going about my business.
“One day, I was approached by a man who attacked me.
“Things quickly turned nasty. Not even I can put into words the amount of thoughts that ran through my mind in those moments.
“I think the overwhelming thought was actually an emotion – it was fear, fear that this would be the end.
“I was stricken with the feeling that I would be raped and killed.”
Before passing sentence, Judge Timothy Stead said Kabala had been suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the attack.
He said the psychotic illness, which was drug-induced, ‘materially’ affected his culpability.
Judge Stead said: “This kidnap was of a lone woman who was dragged into a church yard and threatened with a knife.
“The victim struggled bravely. But in the struggle, she fell and the defendant got on top of her and began to fumble with her fastening of her trousers as she lay on her back in the churchyard.
“She was terrified and has said that she feared that this was her end.
“Although she has been significantly and continuously affected by what happened to her, she has shown extraordinary levels of robustness.”
Kabala was jailed for six years and nine months. He will also spend three years on licence.