Brave teenager helped snare man who attacked her by recording the sex assault on her mobile phone
Student Lillian Constantine was using her phone to light the way on a dark street and in a quick-thinking moment managed to hit record
A BRAVE teen helped to catch her attacker after she recorded the horrifying sexual assault on her mobile phone.
Student Lillian Constantine was using her phone to light the way on a dark street and in a quick-thinking moment managed to hit record as she was attacked on her way home.
Ashraf Miah, pounced on the 18-year-old beneath a street light that had been turned off by a council to save cash.
The 34-year-old was last month jailed for 13-and-a half years and must serve a minimum of nine-and-a-half years, after the footage helped police identify the attacker.
The courageous teenager has waived her right to anonymity to tell other sex crime victims to come forward.
She said: “Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone. As soon as he touched me on the shoulder, that’s when I started to record. Usually when I walk home I text people. It’s also a source of light.
“He came up, asked me where I was going and I said I was going home.
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“And then he started to try to tackle me to the floor. It was like, arms round the shoulders, his leg trying to trip me up, anything he could to try and ground me.
“I had no idea why at first. The first thing that came into my head was he was going to mug me. I was screaming the whole time, ‘I’m filming you, I’m filming you.
"I’m going to call the f*****g police, I’m filming you right now. You are not going to get away with this’.”
Sentencing Miah at Canterbury crown court, Judge James O’Mahony said: “In 13 years on the bench I have seldom heard a more harrowing incident of the brave victim screaming in terror and pleading for it to stop and the awful suffering she endured.
“If anyone needed a wake-up call as to just how horrific the offence of attempted rape is, then this was it.”
Lillian had been recording footage in bars as part of her media studies coursework in Ramsgate, Kent.
Predatory Miah – who had already pestered one girl for sex that night – spotted her in the Enoteca bar and attacked as she walked home.
The noise woke residents and one slammed a door, which scared Miah off. Bruised and bleeding, Lillian managed to scramble the 30 seconds home.
Mum Karen – a local councillor and magistrate – woke to her daughter’s cries as she fell through the front door.
Karen said: “I realised the seriousness. It was instant. The state she was in, I thought ‘This is a sexual assault’. My instinct was just to hold her.”
Miah would only admit to attempted rape and Lillian couldn’t face the uncertainty and cross-examination a full rape trial would bring.
The Constantine family now want a raft of measures to help boost rape conviction rates, including rape-trained officers available at all times and more sexual assault referral centres.
Lillian, who will go to university in Manchester in September said to other victims: “Don’t put limitations on yourself because it’s happened. It may be draining. It may linger, but it won’t define you.
“I don’t need to feel ashamed and neither should anyone else.”
A Kent County Council spokesman said the council was converting 120,000 street lights to LED which would be left on all the time.
He added: “We did not switch off any street lights in town centres, areas with CCTV, known anti-social behaviour areas, at busy junctions, roundabouts or sites with road safety issues.
“We met with Kent Police on a regular basis and they indicated there was no overall increase in crime since the introduction of part-night lighting.”
Detective Superintendent Susie Harper, of Kent Police, said: “Although we work to prevent and reduce offences of rape, we also encourage its reporting.
“Kent Police will take a victim’s views into account during an investigation and in many cases a victim might not wish to support a prosecution. Kent Police will still record the offence, but it might be that it does not reach a court process.
“Kent Police constantly monitors its performance to address any areas for improvement and to continue to provide the best possible service for rape victims.”
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