Pervert jailed for sexually assaulting woman in Alexandra Park
Park Road Pools, Crouch End. - Credit: Archant
Sofiane Messaad, 20, had fled to the park after being caught spying on another woman as she showered at the Park Roads Pools leisure centre nearby.
The two offences occurred on the same day, July 23 last year, when a woman showerring at the Crouch End centre was shocked to see Messaad’s face staring up at her from underneath the cubicle, City of London Magistrates’ Court heard today.
She said: “Whilst I was in the shower washing myself I looked down and saw a face looking back up at me.”
Prosecutor Jonathan Bryan said: “She thought it was a child at first but quickly realised it was an adult face looking at her.
“She immediately put on a towel because she was naked and pushed open the door of the cubicle next to her.
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“Having opened the door she was very taken aback because what she sees is an adult male, totally naked, with an erection.”
Jailing him for 24 weeks, Magistrate Nathalie Laniado told Messaad: “This was a frightening offence with devastating consequences.”
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Messaad then fled to nearby Alexandra Park after being confronted by the woman and ran off insisting she had “made a mistake”.
The prosecutor said: “Another female is walking in the park when she hears a voice saying “excuse me”.
“She turned around to see a man no more than a few feet away.”
His second victim recalled: “He looked me up and down in a very sleazy way and was grinning.
“He reached out with his left hand and squeezed my right bum cheek. I didn’t want him to touch me.”
Messaad, denying the claims, insisted he had simply gone to the wrong changing rooms by mistake.
“When I heard female voices I had already taken off my shorts,” he told the court.
“The woman started shouting at me. I didn’t have any erection.
“I Alexandra Park I tried to chat up a woman but I didn’t touch her at all.”
Messaad, of Friern Barnet Road in New Southgate, denied voyeurism and sexual assault but was convicted of both offences.
He was jailed for a total of 24 weeks and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for seven years.
