'I WAS 60 SECONDS FROM HOME'
Brave teen student tells how she helped catch sex attacker by filming the assault on her phone
Lillian Constantine has waived her right to anonymity in the hope other sex crime victims will come forward
A BRAVE teen has this morning revealed the terrifying moment she was able to catch her sex attacker after she recorded the horrifying 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 just 60 seconds from home.
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Appearing on This Morning the courageous teenager, 19, told hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield how she was just a minute from home when Ashraf Miah, pounced beneath a street light that had been turned off by a council to save cash.
She said: "I started walking home down a residential street. It was very open, not some dark alley. He asked me where I was going.
"I thought it was just another drunk friendly guy. I didn’t think much of it.
"When he touched me I thought ‘there is something wrong here’. I said I was going home.
"I started recording it on my phone. At that point I was in such a state of shock I forgot I was recording but I managed to get a shot of his face.
"I was 60 seconds from home. I was running, limping, trying to hold myself together. I was hysterically crying.”
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Miah, 34, was jailed for 13-and-a half years and must serve a minimum of nine-and-a-half years for the attempted rape after the footage helped police identify the attacker.
Lillian said: "I managed to get a still and they got him. I still cannot really believe it. I felt like I had caught him.”
The teen said has waived her right to anonymity to tell other sex crime victims to come forward.
She added: "I think at first I had to have some time off college and I felt quite isolated. I didn’t think to get a taxi. People need to know that this is a problem.”
The student was joined on This Morning by her mum Karen who said her "distress was beyond anything I had seen".
Karen said: "She was in a terrible state. Her distress was beyond anything I had seen.
"We called the police. We looked at the footage on the phone. For both of us – my husband and Lillian’s dad Chris – it was awful.
"But you disassociate yourself – it is natural that you just want to help her.”
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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.
Lillian today recalled the horror of the police examination after being assaulted: "You are not even able to brush your hair. It is intimate, nasty, clinical and cold. I kept thinking how did I go from being in a classroom to being here.
"I had to wait almost a whole day to get my examination. I had to wait all this time. Why are there not more facilities? I could have changed my mind. It needs to be quicker.”
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The noise woke residents and one slammed a door, which scared Miah off.
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 added: "I had a few wobbles where I thought I should not be going out. But then I think ‘no, I am going out.
"I am going to be who I was before the attack. It strengthens you. You are able to talk to other people about it.”
A Kent County Council spokesman said at the time of Miah's conviction the council was converting 120,000 street lights to LED which would be left on all the time.
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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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