A DRUNKEN man has been jailed after he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl outside a train station.

Colin Chitava “aggressively” kissed his victim’s neck and grabbed her thigh before putting his hand up her top at a bus stop near Newport railway station.

He went up to the schoolgirl after he had been drinking in the city centre and told her she was beautiful before he attacked her.

The victim had been waiting for her mother to pick her up when the shocking incident unfolded at around 10.30pm on Thursday, June 17, 2021.

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Joshua Scouller, prosecuting, said: “She was crying and the defendant threatened to hurt her really badly and raised his clenched fist to her.

“She tried to record what was happening on her phone but he took it and put his phone number in it and told her to call him if she wants some fun.”

The schoolgirl managed to run away and get help from a security guard who was working at the Admiral building nearby, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

In a victim impact statement she said: “Following this incident I feel unsafe when I am out and I am always looking over my shoulder.

“I find it difficult to trust anyone and it has affected my relationships with boys.

“It makes me sick thinking about it.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget what happened to me.

“It makes my skin crawl.

“Since this happened I have stopped going to Newport.”

Zimbabwean-born Chitava, of Buttermere Way, Newport was found guilty of sexual assault by a jury following a trial.

He had denied the charge.

The defendant has 16 previous convictions for 24 offences that include using violence to enter a premises, assaulting a police officer, travelling on the railway without paying, drink driving and criminal damage.

Ieuan Bennett representing Chitava said: “He has been settled in the UK for a long time now.

“The defendant has a good work ethic in the construction business.

“He knows that on his release he will have to start life afresh.

“Drink is something of a common theme and he couldn’t remember much about what happened.

“The defendant will find a custodial sentence a difficult time.”

The Recorder of Cardiff Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke told Chitava: “You had been drinking in a nearby pub and you were drunk.”

She told him the offence was so serious that only a custodial sentence could be justified.

The defendant was jailed for three years.

He will have to register as a sex offender for life.

  • Gwent Police were asked to provide a mugshot of the defendant but they declined to do so.