Description
A judge has praised a passer-by for thwarting a potential rapist during a street assault in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland.
Ian Hudson, 42, of no fixed address, was sentenced to nine years in prison on November 13 at Newcastle Crown Court for eight offenses, including attempted rape, sexual assault, non-fatal strangulation, and assaulting officers, Northumbria Police reported. He will be on the Sex Offenders' Register for life and subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
The attack occurred on December 30 last year. Hamzah Albar, a 23-year-old Saudi Arabian student, was heading to shops when he saw Hudson assaulting the woman. After his phone battery died during a police call, Albar confronted Hudson, chased him away, grabbed and held him down despite being punched in the face, and flagged down motorists to alert authorities.
In June, Hudson was convicted of two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, common assault, non-fatal strangulation, sexual assault, and attempted rape. He had pleaded guilty to exposure and assaulting a PC.
The victim's court statement read: "I didn't know there was evil out there like him but now I have seen evil, and it terrifies me." She added: "That night I honestly believe he would've killed me if the witness hadn't come along."
Judge Recorder David M Gordon commended Albar: "I wish to formally commend Mr Hamzah Albar for his extraordinary courage and public-spiritedness. Mr Albar intervened without hesitation to prevent the rape of the complainant who was in clear and immediate danger. In doing so, he not only placed himself at personal risk, but was in fact assaulted by the defendant as he restrained him until the police arrived."
In a police-shared video, Albar said: "He knew what he had done was despicable and he was trying to run away from the consequences as urgently as he could. Ultimately, I was not going to let that happen."
Albar later met the victim, who said she had resisted for minutes but was about to surrender when he intervened.
Detective Constable Hayley McIntosh stated: "The offences which Ian Hudson inflicted on his victim were truly horrific."