Lithuanian jailed for string of sex attacks on women

Three of the women were molested by Jaroslav Balsan in the early morning of October 2 last year after he approached them while they were on their way to work.

His fourth victim was attacked after he spotted her sitting on a bench alone a week later.

Balsan, 29, of May Street, Hull, was unanimously found guilty by a jury at Leeds Crown Court yesterday of sexually assaulting two of the women on October 2 and by a 10-2 majority on the third. He was cleared of a similar offence on a fourth woman the same morning.

The jury also found him guilty by a 10-2 majority of sexual penetration with fingers on the October 9 complainant.

Sentencing him, Judge James Spencer QC said he had behaved on the two occasions in October in a “disgraceful manner”.

“On the 2 October when you were blind drunk you assaulted three different women making their way to work.”

Those assaults were sexual but the touching was superficial and over the clothing. But he said the following week in the early hours, as people left clubs, that victim’s ordeal was more prolonged.

“You put your hand down her clothing and touched her breasts and then you put your hand up her skirt.”

He told Balsan: “You make sure when you are released you do not descend to this type of behaviour in the future.”

Mark McKone, prosecuting, described how Balsan put his hand between the legs of one woman and then touched her right breast before approaching another woman and briefly grabbing her breast over clothing on October 2 in Beverley Road, Hull.

A short time later he squeezed the breast of another woman after asking if she was working. One of the women later picked him out from a video line up.

A week later he spoke to the woman sitting on a bench and suddenly put his hand down her dress touching both breasts before touching her under her skirt. When the shocked woman walked away he followed and again put his hand up her skirt.

She got into a cab and the police were informed. CCTV cameras followed Balsan until his arrest in Prospect Street.

Using a Russian interpreter he denied the later offence had happened and said the incidents the previous week had been “gentle touching” not sexual.