A “dangerous” sexual predator, Mentesnot Cheru the London Sex Offender, has been imprisoned for assaulting two solitary women on a street in north London.
Mentesnot Cheru, 29, perpetrated brutal sexual assaults on random people in their 20s, few minutes apart, on the morning of April 4 in Tottenham.
He was identified due to witness Joshua Donka, 20, who, while driving, recorded Mentesnot Cheru on camera after the initial assault.
A month later, Mr. Donka observed the 29-year-old once more, subsequently trailing him to his residence and contacting the police.
Mentesnot Cheru admitted admission to two charges of sexual assault and one charge of cannabis possession during a prior hearing.
He received a sentence of two years and eight months in imprisonment on Wednesday, along with a further three years on extended license.
Upon delivering his verdict at Wood Green Crown Court, Judge Gregory Perrins stated: “You are unequivocally a perilous individual.”
Mentesnot Cheru is required to serve a minimum of two-thirds of his sentence and will be released only when the Parole Board determines it is safe.
He was additionally mandated to register as a sex offender for life.
The judge said he had demonstrated “clear misogynistic attitudes towards women” and that he presented “a very high risk of sexual re-offending.”
Speaking of the two attacks in Tottenham, Judge Perrins said: “They both involved random attacks on lone women. You deliberately targeted them and saw them as vulnerable women walking alone in the street.”
The court heard that his first victim, 20, was on her way to work at around 10.20am when she was attacked by Mentesnot Cheru, who touched her bottom and private parts.
He then called her a “f bitch” and punched her five times in the face and shoulder, leaving her “shocked and traumatised”, with a swollen eye requiring hospital treatment.
The woman said in a victim impact statement: “I was attacked for no reason. When the attack first happened, I was totally shocked. I couldn’t believe someone had attacked me for no reason.”
Minutes later, Mentesnot Cheru attacked another woman, 27, in a nearby street.
“I was suddenly slapped hard on my bottom from behind and it was really hard. I immediately turned around to see who had done that to me. He then punched me in the face once,” the victim told police.
“I was in shock because I was totally not expecting this to happen.”
Mr Donka used his mobile phone to film Mentesnot Cheru, who was holding a tennis racquet as he fled, following the first assault.
The 20-year-old, who was driving past when he spotted the assault, chased Mentesnot Cheru but he escaped.
Footage shows the attacker, wearing a red baseball cap, jeans and white trainers, and carrying a black leather rucksack, being knocked to the ground before fleeing.
When Mr Donka recognised Mentesnot Cheru a month later on May 3, he followed him and managed to get an address, prosecutor Sherry Nabijou told the court.
Mentesnot Cheru has a string of previous convictions, including a seven-year jail sentence in 2010 for stabbing a police officer in the back in Croydon.
While serving his sentence, he attacked a prison guard, before being convicted for exposing himself to a toilet cleaner two days after his release in 2016.
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