Sex fiend’s 7,000-mile ‘rape tour’ to target drunken students
A MIDDLE-AGED sex fiend who went on a 7,000 mile ‘rape tour’ of universities to target women rendered helpless by cheap drink promotions was jailed for 12 years yesterday.
Tahir Nazir, 40, used Freshers Fortnight and other college events to sneak into halls of residence and student digs in England, Wales and Scotland in the hope of targeting drunken undergraduates.
One young woman who had been to a Halloween party in Manchester woke up to find a half-naked Nazir licking her neck and trying to rape her. In another incident he was seen lying on top of a woman as she lay drunk at student digs in Cardiff.
Nazir – who claims to be managing director of a hospitality and entertainment company – was arrested last November after a group of undergraduates reported someone trying the doors to their rooms.
Police found empty packets of Viagra in his car and a fake ID claiming he was a student at Glasgow University. Prosecutors said he had driven 7,000 miles on a tour of university towns Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Oxford, Bristol and Cardiff, during which he slept in his car.
Nazir monitored student activities at halls of residence at the University of Manchester, taking 38 images on his mobile phone. He also carried out internet searches for ‘ high school girls’, ‘Freshers Week’ and ‘ Swansea University Students Union’. He would swallow Viagra tablets and snort cocaine to heighten his sexual appetite.
Nazir, from Glasgow, was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of sexual assault, attempted rape, and three charges of trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence. He was also ordered to sign the Sex
‘No doubt providing easier targets’
Offender Register for life. The court heard he had been a student himself in the 1990s but never graduated, despite enrolling on business studies or IT degrees at the University of Dundee, University of the West of Scotland at Paisley and the University of Strathclyde.
Henry Blackshaw, prosecuting, said the divorcee had a ‘sexual obsession with students’ and researched events where he knew undergraduates would be drunk.
Mr Blackshaw said: ‘ During the dead of night he broke into accommodation, and on two of the occasions sexually attacked females asleep in their beds. Freshers Week was a time of year when students are full of excitement, getting drunk, no doubt providing easier targets.’
Nazir’s was arrested on November 6 last year after girls in a shared house in Manchester reported someone was trying the doors to their room. He was linked to the other offences by DNA.
He denied all the allegations, saying he had been invited back to the halls. He claimed his tour of Britain was a motoring ‘trip of a lifetime’ saying he loved driving and was ‘inspired by Gothic architecture’.