Sex attacker walks free ... because he can’t speak English
A CYCLIST dubbed the ‘Brighton bottom slapper’ avoided jail for sexual assault yesterday – because he is too shy and can’t speak English.
Constantin Barbutu, 22, would don a hoodie and ride up behind women walking, jogging or cycling alone before smacking or groping them.
But a judge ruled the Romanian was too ‘intellectually impaired’ to face jail after hearing the sex attacker was ‘cripplingly shy’.
Judge David Rennie told Hove Crown Court that Barbutu’s ‘ diminished intelligence’ meant he had struggled to learn English since arriving in the UK three years ago. Instead he handed the sex pest a 12month suspended sentence and 40 days rehabilitation.
He admitted that Barbutu would have faced prison if it were not for his ‘difficulties with the language’.
Barbutu, a dish- washer, admitted 11 sex assaults. Victims said his six-month spree in which he targeted lone woman at night caused ‘great fear and ongoing anguish’.
Around 24 women reported attacks between September 2016 and February 2017.