Locations
Denbury Mount, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD4
Description
A young woman was forced to give up her job after being followed and attacked on her way to work in Bradford last year.
The woman, who must not be identified for legal reasons, had been walking along Manchester Road at about 6am when she became aware of 27-year-old Patrik Lukacs crossing the road and walking right up behind her.
Bradford Crown Court heard on Friday that Lukacs, a father with a long-term partner, told the woman she was “looking good” and asked for her number. Prosecutor Philip Standfast said the woman refused to give him her number, but tried to get rid of him by saying he could add her in Facebook.
The court heard that Lukacs followed the woman all the way to the Ripley Street area where he then began groping her bottom and between her legs. Mr Standfast said: “He went to hug her from behind and tried to pick her up."
The woman was telling him “no”, but Lukacs then tried again to pick her up and take her into a snicket near some flats.
“He tried to grab her hand, but she told him she was not going with him because she had to get to work,” said Mr Standfast.
Lukacs, of Denbury Mount, Holme Wood, Bradford, continued to grope the woman and followed her all the way to her workplace. The court heard she was in tears when she arrived in work and a friend alerted the police after she told him what had happened. The complainant’s jeans were tested and DNA linked to Lukacs was found on them.
Lukacs was arrested a week later and denied sexually assaulting the woman. He suggested that she “quite liked him” and nothing happened that she did not want. But at a court hearing in January Lukacs admitted the two charges of sexual assault and on Friday he was jailed for 18 months.
Mr Standfast said as a result of the attack the complainant had given up her job because she felt unsafe going to work along the same route.
Barrister John Batchelor, for Lukacs, said his partner had been away and his client had been out drinking with friends. He suggested that Lukacs may have been more drunk than he recalled.
Recorder James Baird said the woman had made it clear to Lukacs that she did not want his attention and he had persisted in following her. He said the complainant had been left feeling anxious all the time and found it difficult to sleep.
Lukacs will now have to register as a sex offender with the police for the next 10 years and he is also subject to an indefinite restraining order which bans him from contact the complainant.