Pak-origin man gets 12 yrs for sex attacks on students’ in UK

London, May 29

A 40-year-old Pakistani-origin man in the UK has been sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges of serial sexual attacks on female students across universities.

Tahir Nazir, obtained a fake university ID card and searched the internet looking for student nights so he could target vulnerable and drunk young women, Manchester Crown Court was told.

He was fuelled by drink and drugs as he followed and then attacked his victims. He was sentenced on Friday after being found guilty of a string of sex offences at his trial in March.

Nazir, a Pakistan-born divorcee from Glasgow, hired a car and embarked on a tour of university towns and cities in Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Oxford, Bristol and Cardiff.

The court heard an examination of Nazir's mobile phone found he had conducted internet searches for "high school girls" and "freshers'" week, particularly around Swansea and Cardiff.

He was caught after sneaking into a student house in Fallowfield, Manchester, last November.

Several female undergraduates heard someone systematically going through the house, trying their locked bedroom door handles.

They called police who arrested him nearby.

Analysis of DNA linked him to a sex attack five days earlier at a block of flats in Hulme.

"His campaign involved taking detailed photos of premises where students lived, in particular entrances and access rooms, Judge Martin Steiger said.

 "And finally it involved his posing as a student for which purpose he had obtained a highly convincing fake student union ID card," he said.

Nazir wrote a letter to the judge in which he "apologised to the victims and acknowledged the seriousness of his crimes", his barrister said. — PTI