A man from Brent has been jailed for sexually assaulting a woman in a vicious attack near a popular London nightclub.
Yathukulan Paskaramoorthy was sent to prison for four years after previously admitting to one count of sexual assault by penetration.
His victim, a 19-year-old student, had only been in the UK for four days when she was set upon by Paskaramoorthy, from Berkley road in Kingsbury . She now says she fears going out with friends.
The 33-year-old had entered his guilty plea at Southwark Crown Court on October 26 , and was sentenced at the same court on Thursday (November 24).
At about 1.30am on September 17 she mistakenly left Tiger Tiger nightclub via a fire exit door, believing it led outside.
However, she ended up in the basement of the neighbouring communal building.
Paskaramoorthy, who had been sitting at a table in the club, saw the woman leave and immediately followed her.
The defendant, who did not say anything to the victim during the attack, or have any interaction with her earlier in the evening, grabbed the teen and pushed her to the floor before sexually assaulting her.
The victim fought back and Paskaramoorthy stopped and ran out of the building when and said to him: “There is a camera, don’t do this, don’t do this to me, you’ll get caught.”
The victim initially emailed Tiger Tiger about the attack, and the club contacted the police, with specialist officers interviewing the woman.
They watched CCTV footage and saw Paskaramoorthy follow the woman through the fire exit. It also captured him leaving the building a short time after.
He had earlier had his identity documents scanned when entering the club, and he was subsequently traced and arrested.
The Oyster card records also showed him to be in the vicinity at the time of the assault.
'I went to my room mate and cried because I had to get it off my chest'
Speaking about the impact the attack had on her, the woman said: “I’d only been in London for four days at the time and I didn’t want to tell my parents as I felt it would affect them psychologically and they would want me to come home straight away.
“I didn’t want to worry them. So I just went to my room mate and cried because I had to get it off my chest.
“I hate that it happened, but I fought the guy off and I was glad I did because I do not want him to do worse to someone else.
Apprehensive
“I’m very apprehensive about going out with university friends now, and I do not.”
Detective Constable Ben Lucas, the investigating officer from the Met’s Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command , said: “This was a predatory attack on a vulnerable young woman and has left her fearful to go out with friends.
“I would like to praise her for her courage in coming to us and helping us to bring Paskaramoorthy to justice. The sentence passed will give him time to reflect on his horrific actions and how he has affected this young woman’s life.
“I would also like to thank the staff at Tiger Tiger for all their help with the investigation, including helping us to identify Paskaramoorthy so quickly.”
Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.
You can even set it to receive push notifications for all the breaking news in your area.
Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android now!
