A pervert taxi driver has been jailed after prowling student areas hoping to sexually assault young women who had left their doors unlocked.
Creepy Amjad Farooq, 29, sexually assaulted his first victim as she lay asleep on the sofa after letting himself into her flat after she left her door unlocked.
He was eventually caught three months later on January 5 when he was spotted trying door handles to other student homes in the early hours of the morning.
Leeds Crown Court, West Yorks., heard he attacked his first victim after she had spent the evening drinking with friends in her student digs in the Headingley area of Leeds, West Yorks., in October before she crashed out without locking the front door.
The court heard Farooq entered the flat at around 1am and sexually assaulted the woman.
Gerald Hendron, prosecuting, said the woman was dazed at the time and initially thought Farooq was her ex-boyfriend.
She went to her bedroom with Farooq, who continued to have sexual contact with her in the dark.
It wasn’t until Farooq spoke with a foreign accent did she realise she was being sexually assaulted by an intruder.
Farooq was then chased out of the flat by the woman, who called the police.
In January a concerned member of the public called police after spotting Farooq testing doors in the Woodhouse area of the city at around 5am.
The court heard he had already managed to break into two properties where women were sleeping in bed.
At the first house one woman woke up to find Farooq touching her legs as she lay in bed.
The dad-of-two fled after realising her friend was also in bed next to her.
Farooq, from Leeds, managed to get into another property nearby where another female student was sleeping but ran off after setting off the burglar alarm.
Jessica Strange, mitigating, said Farooq faced being deported to Pakistan after he finishes his sentence.
Ms Strange added he was unable to explain why he carried out these attacks.
She said: “These type of offence are difficult to accept for most people.”
Farooq pleaded guilty to two sexual assault offences and two counts of trespassing with intent to commit a sexual offence.
Jailing Farooq for 12 years, with an extended period of three years on licence, Judge Mushtaq Khokhar said: “It appears you had picked out this area to find young victims so there was a certain amount of planning involved.
“In those circumstance I have to impose a sentence that affords protection to young women in Leeds.”
Detective Superintendent Pat Twiggs, of West Yorkshire Police, said after the case: “Amjad Farooq is a truly dangerous individual who sought to prey upon people in their own homes to commit sexual assaults, and we welcome his conviction.”
