Teenager tried to rape party girl wearing skeleton costume

Jacob Feldman pounced on his victim and tried to rape her moments after being rejected by another woman he had asked for sex.

Feldman, 18, dragged his victim to the ground as she screamed for help and ripped off her costume, telling the girl: “Don’t shout, it will be easier.”

The teenager fled, however, after two women in a house near the scene of the attack, in Headingley, Leeds, heard the disturbance and went to help the girl.

Feldman left the area but managed to get into a block of flats nearby and climbed into the bed of another student who was asleep.

She was shocked to find him next to her when she awoke and told him to leave.

He did so, but then got into the bed of another student in the same building.

Police were called and found Feldman hiding in a cupboard. He would later boast to officers that he was good looking.

Feldman, of Park Avenue, Roundhay, was jailed for three years and eight months yesterday after pleading guilty to attempted rape.

After the hearing Detective Inspector John Dexter, of West Yorkshire Police, said: “Feldman put the victim through a terrifying ordeal.

“His behaviour that night shows he is clearly a very dangerous individual.”

Leeds Crown Court was told Feldman had been drinking heavily and had taken drugs when he went to the Headingley area to meet a girl he had previously had a one-night stand with.

He pushed her into some bushes after she rejected him and she left after her friends came to help.

Feldman then turned his attention to the student as she was making her home from a party in Leeds city centre. DNA evidence later linked him to the attack.

Richard Walters, prosecuting, said the victim had taken a break from her studies and had moved out of the city because of her ordeal.

Kama Melly, mitigating, said Feldman was one of triplets and had experienced problems during his teens after his parents split up and he was separated from his two siblings.

Judge Rodney Jameson, QC, said he believed Feldman would have carried out the rape had he not been disturbed and his victim had resigned herself to the fact that she was about to be raped.