A sex attacker has been jailed after his victim snapped a photo of him on her iPhone, moments after she was assaulted.
Luis Silva, 22, pounced on the woman as she walked through Eversham, Worcs, in the early hours of June 15.
But the 23-year-old victim managed to take a picture of her attacker on her mobile shortly after the assault, and it was circulated by police who quickly identified the man as Silva.
He has now been jailed for three and a half years after admitting sexual assault, attempted robbery and indecent exposure.
Judge Robert Juckes QC told him at Worcester Crown Court: “The victim showed an extraordinary presence of mind and intelligence by recording the attack.”
The court heard Silva, of Repton in Derbyshire, attacked the woman after he had “drunk enough to sink a ship” after spending £150 on whiskey following a row with his girlfriend.
Prosecutor Paul Whitfield said: “The defendant began to follow the woman through the town.
“He approached her at a junction and exposed himself.
“He then demanded she touched him and, when she got out her mobile phone to film him, he sexually assaulted her by touching her over her clothes.”
Silva then slapped the woman and she fell to the floor.
When she told him she was recording him, he tried to rob her phone before she ran off.
Sarah Holland, defending, told the court Silva had moved to the UK from his native Portugal in January this year looking for a better life and to be closer to his girlfried.
But on the night of the attack Silva had an argument with his partner and her mother, who was visiting from Portugal, and had gone out to “drown his sorrows”.
She added that Silva did not remember the incident but was “very ashamed” of his actions.
