Tahir Ali 37

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A sexual predator who attacked two women on Metrolink trams has been branded as posing a 'risk to females'. Tahir Ali, 37, groped a student after sitting next to her, and weeks later pressed his body against the bottom of a 16-year-old girl for his own sexual pleasure, in front of her mother.

University student Ali has been banned from using trams indefinitely after targeting his victims who were complete strangers, and had boarded trams at Exchange Square on the Rochdale and Oldham line. Manchester Crown Court heard that he has an 'appalling' criminal history, and has six previous offences of sexual assault on his record.

His lawyer said Ali's deviant behaviour is a 'compulsion' which he has been 'unable to resist'. Remorseless Ali, from Oldham, forced his victims to give evidence in court after he refused to admit his crimes. He was sentenced to three years in prison after being found guilty.

Prosecuting, Nick Ross told how Ali’s first victim noticed that he was staring at her while she waited to board a tram at Exchange Square on November 14 last year. When she got on the tram, Ali sat behind her but then moved to sit directly next to her.

Ali then began to move his hands up and down her leg ‘in a sexual manner’, Mr Ross said. He got up when the woman asked him to stop.

Weeks later, Ali boarded another Rochdale bound tram at Exchange Square, on December 22 last year. His 16-year-old victim was with her mother on the busy tram when she noticed a man pressing against her bottom.

When she turned around she saw that Ali’s penis was erect. Ali left the tram at Failsworth, where the girl’s mother shouted at him. He proceeded to board another tram heading back into the city centre.

“It is horrifying that you sexually assaulted a 16-year-old victim as her own mother was present in the tram carriage,” Judge Tom Gilbart told Ali. “You were travelling on the Metrolink system for the purposes of sexual gratification.”

Ali’s first victim said his behaviour was ‘disgusting’. In a statement read to the court, she said: “I don’t feel comfortable sitting on my own on the tram. I was scared at the time that he would follow me home.”

The 16-year-old said: “I felt like I couldn’t do anything to stop the male touching me. I felt like the male had power over me. I don’t want to see this male on the tram again. He is a risk to females. I want him to know that he can’t get away with what he has done to me.”

Mr Ross said of Ali, who was caught out on Metrolink CCTV cameras: “The Crown suggests he is a persistent sexual predator.” His previous sexual assaults include attacks on a woman in a shop and in a library.

When he was interviewed by a probation officer prior to sentencing, Ali continued to ‘completely deny’ his wrongdoing and claimed he’d been ‘set up’.

Defending, David Morton said Ali was enrolled in the first year of a business and finance university course prior to his incarceration. He said of Ali’s behaviour: “These are compulsions that he has been hitherto unable to resist.”
A sexual harm prevention order was imposed indefinitely, to prevent Ali from using the Metrolink system. Ali, of Kelverlow Street, Oldham, was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault.