A man followed two women in the early hours of the morning, before picking one of them up and carrying her off in a terrifying town centre incident.
Saul Rostas, 24, tried to kidnap his victim after he attacked both of the women in a petrifying ordeal, on May Bank Holiday, last year. Rostas spotted the two women on University Boulevard in Middlesbrough town centre at 2..00am.
He was drink driving a Mercedes van he had taken from his employer. Rostas parked up and began following the women. He approached them and asked them to “go with him.” The women refused and Rostas launched his vicious attack.
He punched one of the women repeatedly in the face, before lifting her up. Paul Abrahams, prosecuting, said Rostas carried the woman “in a fireman’s lift” a short way down the street, in an attempt to kidnap her.
Teesside Crown Court has heard that the woman “was terrified and thought she was going to be subjected to a sexual assault.” Rostas admitted to the crime on the basis that that he had intended to rob the woman.
University Boulevard in Middlesbrough
(Image: Google)
The victim fought back, and Rostas threw her to the ground, and kicked her. He then punched the second woman in the face. When the police arrived, Rostas spat at the officer who arrested him.
On Friday, Rostas appeared in court on video link from Durham prison. In a statement, the woman Rostas carried away, said that she no longer goes out at night, that she now feels “isolated.”
Rostas later pleaded guilty to attempted kidnap; two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm; assaulting an emergency worker; drink driving; driving with no insurance or licence; taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent; and failing to provide a breath test when he was asked to by police.
In mitigation, Michele Turner told the court that “the issues started during Covid, when this Rostas’ mum went to Romania to visit her family. His mum, who was only 42, caught Covid and died.”
Ms Turner said that the fact that Rostas “didn’t get to say goodbye, had a huge impact on him.” Rostas’ family got him into work, and Ms Turner said that they thought that would help his well-being, “…but it was counter productive.
“It gave him an income to fund his escalating cocaine and alcohol addiction – which was to mask his bereavement. It was a rapid descent; this is a young man who just couldn’t come to terms with what happened.”
Rostas’ family listened from the public gallery as Judge Timothy Stead said he accepted that “robbery was the underlying intention” for the attempted kidnap.
The judge told Rostas: “You saw two women who were alone. You followed them. That must have been strongly unnerving for them.
“You tried to persuade them to go with you. It’s difficult to imagine anyone who would want to go with an intoxicated stranger. They refused.
“You picked up a woman and carried her with a view to taking her away – that is a serious offence of attempted kidnapping.”
Rostas, of Leinster Road in central Middlesbrough, was jailed for four-years. He was disqualified from driving for 38-months.
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