Ten years for sex attacks on two students (From The Northern Echo)

Ten years for sex attacks on two students

8:59am Saturday 11th December 2010 in News By Neil Hunter

A SEX attacker was last night starting a ten-year prison sentence after he was caught because of a motoring conviction six years ago.

Gary Grubb’s profile was on the national DNA database because the contract engineer had been prosecuted for drink-driving in the South of England in 2006.

After the attacks in a Middlesbrough park in June last year, Grubb fled to South Africa, but was arrested when he flew into Gatwick Airport this August.

He later pleaded guilty to four sex offences against two students, and was yesterday told he had left his victims with potentially lifelong psychological scars.

Jailing him and ordering him to sign on the sex offenders’ register for life, Judge Peter Fox said: “You subjected each of these young persons to an appalling indignity.

“It must have been, and must continue to be, a truly shocking experience for each of them, and the consequences for each are clearly indicated in their impact statements.”

The judge, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, added: “It cannot be ventured as to when, if ever, there can be substantial recovery from such an experience.”

Teesside Crown Court heard how Grubb struck as the young women walked through Laycock Gardens at about 2.30am on June 12 after a night out with friends.

The 33-year-old pinned them both to the ground with his arms, indecently assaulted them and repeatedly ordered them to keep quiet, said prosecutor Shaun Dodds.

One of the victims, a 22-year-old, said: “I thought he was going to strangle me, or something. I didn’t want to do anything that would make him get crazy.”

The terrified post-graduate students reached out to one another and held hands “as an act of solidarity” as they were held to the ground, Mr Dodds told the court.

They both managed to wriggle free and flee, and while one sought help from a passer-by in the street, the other, aged 21, banged on the door of a nearby house.

Mark Monaghan, mitigating, said father-of-one Grubb deserved credit for his “brave” decision to return to the UK after he heard police wanted to question him.

Grubb’s wife gave evidence to the court and described him as “a wonderful father”

who had never before behaved in such a way.

Grubb, of Lamberhurst Grove, Milton Keynes, was in Middlesbrough on a work contract, and was staying in a town centre hotel at the time of the attacks. Afterwards, he told his employers he had to go to Zimbabwe to deal with immigration matters, flew to South Africa and went to Mozambique to work for his wife’s family.

Mr Monaghan said: “His decision to return knowing what was waiting for him within this jurisdiction when he landed is a deeply honourable and brave decision.”

After the case, Sergeant Simon Hurwood described Grubb, who admitted sexual assault and three charges of assault by penetration, as “a dangerous individual”.