Sex attacker banned from Leeds student heartland was caught in gardens of Headingley houses

A convicted sex offender who was banned from entering student areas in north Leeds has been jailed after police spotted him in the gardens of two houses in Headingley.
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Azrael Bell, 24, gave police a false name after he was seen looking through ground floor windows at the two houses on Victoria Road in the early hours of September 28.

Leeds Crown Court heard today (Dec 17) that in 2017 Bell had followed and sexually assaulted two lone women - both students - Leeds.

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One of the assaults happened in September 2017 on Woodhouse Lane when Bell jumped from behind a bus stop and grabbed a 21-year-old student.

Victoria Road, Headingley.
Image: GoogleVictoria Road, Headingley.
Image: Google
Victoria Road, Headingley. Image: Google

At Bell's sentencing hearing last May, Leeds Crown Court heard the victim thought she would be raped during the attack when Bell told her 'I’m not leaving until I get what I want from you.'

Bell was handed a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years at last May's sentencing hearing.

And a five-year sexual harm prevention order banned him from entering the Hyde Park, Woodhouse Moor and Headingley areas of Leeds.

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Prosecutor, Philip Adams told the latest hearing that police were on patrol on Victoria Road at around 2.30am on September 28 when they spotted Bell in the gardens of two houses looking through windows.

Bell, of Aberdeen Drive, Armley, told police he was looking for a friend at a house party and gave officers a false name.

He later told police he had gone to Headingley to buy cannabis

Bell admitted breaching the sexual harm prevention order by entering the exclusion zone and obstructing police by giving a false name.

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Richard Reed, mitigating, said: "He clearly is a young man with a number of problems.

"He hasn't been diagnosed as autistic, but isn't far from the autistic spectrum and clearly has some learning difficulties as well."

Jailing Bell for 12-months, Recorder Andrew Dallas told him: "The sexual harm prevention order for five years that was passed at the time of sentence included an exclusion zone intended to cover the student area of north east Leeds, which is where these offences have been committed."

Recorder Dallas added: "You deliberately breached that order by going where you did, right into the middle of the student area and looking into the windows in the dead of night on private property."