A JUDGE praised the actions of a Good Samaritan who stepped in as a young woman was being sexually assaulted in Andover.

Judge Keith Cutler QC gave the gratitude of the court to the unknown female as he sentenced Craig Derek Vincent to 18 months in prison during at hearing at Winchester Crown Court of Friday, 17 November.

The court heard the woman intervened in the assault on River Way after Vincent followed the victim from Andover railway station in the early hours of the morning on Saturday, 18 March.

Judge Cutler told the court that if the Good Samaritan had come forward during a police media appeal after the incident, then he would have recommended her for a High Sheriff’s Award.

Matthew Lawson, prosecuting, described how the victim’s ordeal began after getting off a train at the station and, following Vincent’s arrest, officers found messages on his mobile phone asking a friend for an alibi as he was in “some serious doo-doo”.

He said: “She began walking home and as she walked from Andover train station along Station Road, there was a shop which she walked past. As she did so she saw a man staring at her. This was the defendant. The defendant was on his own, she had never seen him before.

“The defendant called out and asked her for a kiss. The defendant then stood in [her] path to stop her from walking on.”

Mr Lawson continued to tell the court that Vincent, 22, of Tudor Court, told the victim he had been in the army, he was a psychopath and he would harm her.

As she carried on walking, he followed her, keeping a couple of car lengths behind, along a footpath leading into Enham Arch Retail Park where she walked past Wickes and Next before crossing the road near to Tesco and onto River Way.

On River Way he stood in front of her and grabbed the back of her head forcing her to kiss him. She tried to push him away and shortly after that he pushed her and she fell to the ground, injuring her elbow.

At that point the unknown woman appeared from nowhere and shouted at the assailant who ran off.

Mr Lawson added: “She says that he smelt of alcohol. She said the incident from beginning to end lasted 40 minutes as she walked the long way round because she didn’t want him knowing where she lived.

“The attention from the defendant was completely unwanted and he had no right to act that way towards her.”

In a victim impact statement, she described how since the incident she has become more fearful of going out, more reclusive and looks over her shoulder all the time when she does go out.

In the days following the media appeal, Vincent’s flatmate noticed his “bizarre” behaviour and, on speaking to him about it, he admitted his presence but not the sexual assault.

Defending the former Lloyds worker, Fern Russell said Vincent had come to be so intoxicated because of the situation he found himself in after his long-term relationship had broken down following a miscarriage.

She said: “It is a very poor choice by a very young man. He wonders himself how he comes to be in this situation.

“I don’t offer this as an excuse but as an explanation of his behaving in this way.”

Sentencing him to 18 months in prison, Judge Cutler said: “What on earth were you doing?

“On 18 March this year that poor girl was walking back from Andover [station], it is everyone’s nightmare. It must have been a horrifying incident for this young girl.

“What would have happened if this woman had not intervened, one doesn’t know.”

Vincent, who pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing, will also be on the Sex Offender Register for 10 years.