Facebook photo helps catch Leamington sex attacker

A website photographer well-known in the bars of Leamington attacked and sexually assaulted a student on her doorstep after following her home.

And Bikramjit Baden - known as Bik -was caught after a CCTV operator recognised him from his Facebook page.

The 39-year-old, of Victoria Street, Leamington, had pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the young woman during an incident in March.

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But a jury at Warwick Crown Court took just over an hour to find him guilty by a unanimous verdict.

Prosecutor Anthony Potter said that on March 5 the victim went out to a Leamington night club with a group of fellow university students.

She left her friends at about 1.30am to make her way home from the town centre along a route which was partly covered by CCTV cameras.

At a junction she noticed Baden eating take-away food – and as she passed him he said: “Hi pretty lady.”

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She ignored him and continued on her way, but he began to follow her, making further comments which she also ignored but took out her mobile phone in case she needed it. When Baden continue to follow her onto the drive of her home, she told him: “You don’t live here. I think you should leave.”

But as she put her key in the lock to open her front door to go inside he came up behind her and punched her to the head before continuing to rain blows on her.

Baden grabbed her by her hair and tried to pull her to the ground, then grabbed her round the waist with one hand and put his other hand up her skirt and sexually assault her.

At that point, having heard her shouts, her housemate opened the door and Baden fled. The police were called and a police dog followed Baden’s scent from the scene until losing it in a park near his home. But a CCTV operator recognised Baden from his Facebook page.

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So he then searched the website of the Loose Box bar from where he retrieved a photograph of Baden, who a CCTV camera showed leaving at 1.46am.

Baden said he was well known and popular around bars and clubs in Leamington, acting as a photographer for a website called Residentclubber.

In an attempt to suggest there was someone else in the area who was responsible for the attack, he claimed he had been walking home when he had heard a man’s voice and a woman’s voice.

He said he was very drunk, but denied being responsible for the attack, and claimed that he himself had been the subject of an assault as he had made his own way home.

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Remanding Baden in custody, Recorder Easteal told him: “A significant custodial sentence is inevitable, but I need to consider the question of whether you present a significant risk of serious harm to the public in the future.”

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