Locations
Nelson Square, Waterloo, South East London, SE1
Description
A masked sex attacker who targeted two lone women was tracked down due to the Boris bike he rode off on.
Christion Wright, 28, dragged his first victim, a paramedic, into the bushes at St Jamess Park in a terrifying ordeal at around midnight on 29 January last year.
Three days after the attack in central London, he pulled his trousers down and molested a second woman on a train.
He was jailed last month, but police have now revealed details of how they caught him.
Detectives pieced together CCTV evidence showing him cycle away from the first attack. He was then seen to dock the hired Santander bike in Lower Marsh on the Southbank.
Wright was then linked to the train assault by his DNA.
Catherine Milsom, prosecuting, had told Southwark Crown Court that the first victim had just finished a shift with the NHS and then went into the park.
She walked around the lake and up towards Buckingham Palace when she noticed a man nearby wearing a face mask and hoodie.
Something about him made her very suspicious, Ms Milson said.
Concerned, the victim changed her direction but then spotted Wright hiding behind some trees and clearly following her.
She thought he wanted to rob her and offered him her mobile phone.
He didnt take and instead said I just want to f**k you, said Ms Milsom.
Wright dragged the struggling woman up to some bushes and sexually assaulted her.
The woman bit his hand and he then made off on a Santander hire bike.
Three days later, Wright pulled his trousers on a train and molested a teenager, 19, on the trip between Waterloo East and Greenhithe in Kent.
She had been sitting alone watching YouTube videos on her phone when the defendant came and stood behind her.
When she stood to get off and turned round, she found the defendant with his trousers down, Ms Milsom said.
The Crown would say he is dangerous.
Wright, of Southwark, admitted two counts of sexual assault relating to the first victim and sexual assault and exposure for the train attack.
He was jailed for three years and eight months last month and was also placed in the sex offenders register for life.
Referrring to the attack on the paramedic, Judge Andrew Goymer said: It is sufficient to say he followed the victim into St Jamess Park, she was subjected to considerable force and feared, for good reason, she was going to be raped.
Both are very unpleasant assaults and very distressing to the victims and nobody suggests anything other than a sentence of imprisonment of some substance.
Detective Constable Henh Ban Song said: My colleagues and I are using all legitimate methods at our disposal to identify and convict those who commit crimes against women in the capital.
In this case, Met officers based at Charing Cross police station used technologies including the CCTV network, financial instrument analysis and DNA matching to identify and convict the offender.
Women and girls in London are safer for our hard work and tenacity.
Det Con Song also appealed for any other victims of the predator to come forward, adding: In my view, Wrights offending may have escalated quickly and alarmingly had he not been caught so soon after the offence in St Jamess Park.