A married stalker who followed seven different women, including three schoolgirls, in a 'persistent' rampage over one morning has narrowly avoided jail.
Umer Safdar, 35, was sentenced at Mishull Street Crown Court this morning following guilty pleas to one count of stalking and seven public order offences that put 'fear' and 'panic' into his seven victims.
The court heard how on November 3 of last year, Safdar followed seven different women in his car in Rochdale between the hours of 6:30am and 8am - including one 13-year old and a mother with two young children. Two of the victims, who were schoolgirls aged 15 and 16, said that Safdie had rolled down his window and asked them to get in his car.
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Prosecuting, Mr Berlyne told the court how Safdar had approached his first victim in his Volkswagen Polo at around 6:30am as she was on her way to work. She noticed his car parked on the corner of the road, and as she passed him, he tried to engage her in conversation. She walked away, but later noticed the same vehicle pulled over in front of her again, so asked Safdar if he was lost before walking away from him. When she saw him in front of her a third time, she changed her intended route to work to 'avoid him'.
Safdar was then spotted 'kerb crawling' on Norden Road with his window wound down 'staring' at his second victim. He accelerated his car to get ahead of her as she walked towards Edenfield Road and continued to stare at her. The court heard how the victim walked into a nearby Tesco until she thought Safdar had left, and then continued her journey before noticing him again when he pulled over next to her. She then knocked on the door of a nearby friend as Safdar continued to watch her, until he eventually drove away.
At around 6:55am Safdar had started to stalk a third victim, who was walking with her two young children. She said she noticed his car driving 'very slowly' with his window down, and he was staring at her before pulling over next to her, looking up at her, and smiling. Mr Berlyne told the court how the victim "described feeling a sense of dread" as he did so. Safdar then parked in front of her car and when she asked him if he was okay, he replied "yes beautiful". The victim locked herself and her children in her car and drove off.
The court heard how Safdar approached his fourth victim at a bus stop on Bury Road at around 7:20am. He repeated actions similar to those described by other victims, driving past her and staring at her with his window down. He then stopped and reversed back to where she was stood, placing himself in the bus stop bay where he stayed until the bus came.
Safdar, of Mitchell Street, Rochdale, then approached a fifth victim at around 7:30am, who was just 13 years old, on her way to school. Once again, he stared at her from his car before the victim saw a flash, which she believed to be a camera, suggesting he was taking pictures of her.
Just half an hour later, at 8am, Safdar approached two more children aged 15 and 16 who were walking to school together along Edenfield Road. The court heard how he drove past them before pulling over in front of them. One girl told her friend she thought he might be following them. Safdar drove past them onto a cul-de-sac, where he then turned around and drove back towards them before reportedly asking them "Yo, do you want to get in?". The two girls quickly moved away to warn another schoolfriend of Safdar, and informed their parents and the police of his behaviour. He was later arrested.
Mitigating, Mr Canning said Safdar's behaviour was a 'bad reaction' to heavy drinking the night prior, and that he was still under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time the offences were committed. He also noted how Safdar had not been in trouble with the courts for around five years, despite a previous conviction in 2016 for extreme pornography and possession of indecent images.
Judge Saville also noted that Safdar usually lived a 'normal' life, living with his wife and parents in Rochdale and working at the family business as a barber, but called the offences a 'rather worrying set of circumstances'.
"On the face of it, you have a normal existence," he said in sentencing. "You have not been in trouble for five years. What the [pre-sentencing] report tells me is that you are ashamed and remorseful.
"This was a significant course of action against a number of women. It was clearly intended to cause some fear or distress. It was a persistent action over a relatively lengthy period that morning."
However, he noted that there was 'no particular psychological harm' and that only one woman had been forced to change her routine by taking a different route to work.
He sentenced Safdar to a four month suspended jail sentence with 200 hours of unpaid work, 15 rehabilitation requirement activity days, and ordered him to undertake a sexual offending treatment programme.
"I take the view that the public can best be protected by the suspended sentence," he said. "Were you sent into custody, you would be released in a matter of weeks with no work being done with you whatsoever. It seems to me you need to be punished as well as to consider your behaviour."
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