A KITCHEN worker who tripped a young woman to the ground as she walked home alone along a town centre alleyway in the early hours of the morning and tried to sexually assault her has been jailed for 14 months.

Jakir Hussain grabbed hold of the terrified woman’s arms during the attack - which happened near a graveyard - and tried to pull down her trousers, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

She later told police she thought she was going to be killed and had suffered nightmares since the attack in August last year.

Hussain, 27, of Bahram Close, Newmarket admitted committing battery with intent to commit a sexual offence and was jailed for 14 months and ordered to sign the Sex Offencers’ Register for ten years.

Judge Rupert Overbury reccomended that Hussain, whose UK visa expired in 2009, should be deported.

David Wilson, prosecuting, said the woman had been out for the evening in Newmarket on August 26 and was walking home on her own at around 3am the following morning after making sure that a friend who hadn’t been feeling well had got home safely.

As the woman walked along the High Street she had turned into an alleyway near the White Hart pub and had arranged for a male friend who was concerned for her safety to meet her.

As the woman walked along the alleyway she saw a group of men talking near some flats and shortly afterwards heard a man say something to her in English with a foreign accent.

The woman told him to go away and was then tripped to the ground by the man and landed on her back. Her attacker had held her arms and tried to remove her trousers but she had kicked out and resisted him.

The man got up and when the woman kicked him on the leg he had kicked her on the side of her body.

As a result of the incident the woman suffered grazing to her elbow and bruising. “She was shocked and tearful,” said Mr Wilson.

Police officers spoke to the group of men who had been in the allewyway and Hussain had later gone to the police station after learning that police wanted to speak to him.

Richard Potts for Hussain described the incident as “opportunistic” and said his client had not touched the woman sexually.