A sexual assailant, Ben Creek, who placed a noose around a woman’s neck and forcibly dragged her has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
Ben Creek, 31, perpetrated a “sinister and disturbing” assault as his victim returned from escorting her children to school in Holbeck, Leeds, last year, a jury was informed.
He restrained her on the ground until a bystander intervened, prompting Ben Creek to escape through the congested traffic.
Ben Creek, residing on Britannia Road in Morley, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court on Friday.
The court had heard that Ben Creek grabbed the woman, who was in her 20s, from behind as she walked under a viaduct between Domestic Road and Cross Ingram Road at about 09:15 BST on 5 May last year.
Dressed in black with a beanie hat and with his face covered, Ben Creek choked the struggling victim with the noose as he dragged her to a grassy area.
After the passer-by intervened, he fled through queuing traffic on busy city centre roads, including the A643 dual carriageway.
Ben Creek was identified by members of the public from CCTV images
Ben Creek was arrested 10 days later, after CCTV images released in a police appeal led to his identification.
Detectives learned he had also exposed himself to a schoolgirl in Asquith Avenue, Morley, four days after the noose attack.
In November, Ben Creek had pleaded guilty to sexual assault, attempting to choke, suffocate or strangle a person in order to commit an offence, indecent exposure, and outraging public decency.
After the sentencing, Det Insp Suzanne Hall, of West Yorkshire Police, said: “This was a very sinister and disturbing incident. A woman was brazenly attacked near a busy road as she walked back from taking her child to school during the morning rush hour.
“It was terrifying for her and it has left her traumatised.”
The offences showed Hall was a “dangerous sexual predator”, Det Insp Hall added.
“We hope it will give some degree of comfort to his victims and to the wider community to know that he is behind bars.”
Ben Creek will also have to serve five years on licence after his eventual release from prison.
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