Phillip Daniel 34

Description

A man who sexually assaulted two women in a shopping centre bathroom, hours after attacking a teenager, has been jailed for eight years.

Phillip Daniel, 34, from Barry, grabbed the teenage girl in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, on 26 July 2024, pinning her to a wall—but she wrestled free, fled, and alerted police.

Daniel then boarded a train to Cardiff, where he attacked two women, moments apart, in the women's toilets at St David's shopping centre.

At sentencing in Newport Crown Court on Wednesday, Judge Lloyd-Clarke described Daniel—who has been detained under the Mental Health Act since the attacks—as a "very high risk" to women.

The judge ordered an extended four-year licence period after his prison term, lifelong registration as a sex offender, and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order banning him from women's or unisex public toilets for 15 years and from unsupervised contact with children.

The court heard Daniel told police "voices in his head" had instructed him to travel to Cardiff for the sexual attacks, which left his victims traumatised.

Daniel was previously under a community order for assaulting a lone female jogger in Cardiff's Bute Park on 31 January 2023.

Defence barrister William Bebb said Daniel had a "complex" mental health background, had been detained under the Mental Health Act for 15 months since the offences, and that a medication change had "brought some stability."

The teenage victim reported anxiety, isolation, and disrupted GCSE preparations. One adult victim felt fearful and uncomfortable in public bathrooms, while the other suffered panic attacks and sleep difficulties.

Police found a Viagra tablet in Daniel's wallet upon arrest, but no evidence he took it that day.

A psychiatric report concluded he posed an "elevated risk to females, particularly minors."

Daniel was sentenced for four sexual assaults and the violent assault on the teenager.