Overview
- The offender, 24-year-old Abdul Barkeeh Salihi, was sentenced on July 13 to a £400 fine, a £160 victim surcharge and five years on the sex offenders register for two counts of sexual assault and criminal damage.
- Police say the attacks happened on January 28 when Salihi followed and twice assaulted a 42-year-old woman on Lombard Street and later groped a 14-year-old girl at Leadenhall Market.
- After the assault on the teenager the girl’s family confronted Salihi inside the Rocca restaurant where he threw chairs through a window and was detained by members of the public before police arrived.
- Detective Constable Natalie Schofield thanked the victims for reporting the incidents and described the offending as particularly concerning because one victim was a child, while court records give Salihi’s address as a hotel in Oxford used to house asylum seekers.
- Leadenhall Market is a busy tourist site known for its Harry Potter filming links, and the case underlines the role of public intervention and victim reporting in bringing daytime public sexual assaults to court.