A married dad who approached a lone woman on an M6 embankment as she waited for roadside recovery help and made a series of sexual suggestions has been spared immediate prison.
The woman was sat beside the southbound carriageway of the motorway near Junction 37 after stopping her vehicle on the hard shoulder, in broad daylight on June 6 last year, and was waiting for a Green Flag worker when Ayoub Shah Momand approached.
He had stopped his car in front of hers.
After offering help with her vehicle which was declined, Momand, 45, sat down beside her, lounged on his right arm and said: “I was driving past and saw a beautiful woman at the side of the road and just knew that I couldn’t drive past.
After blatantly asking whether she wanted to go up the embankment and have sex, Momand offered her chocolate, made flattering comments and a series of sexualised remarks.
Carlisle Crown Court heard he then said “look what you could have”, before exposing himself.
Momand continued to pester the woman even after roadside recovery assistance arrived.
But after she wrote down a name after he showed her his Facebook page and, after police were also provided with a photograph of his vehicle, he was arrested a month later in Belfast.
The woman was left crying upset, struggled to sleep for weeks and stated: “This is the only time in my life that I have ever felt real fear.”
Trained chef Momand, of Ladykirk Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, admitted exposure.
A married father-of-six and a grandfather, he had no previous convictions, was described as being “deeply sorry” for the distress caused and had written his victim a letter of apology.
After hearing he had been under stress at a time when his wife was battling cancer, Recorder David Temkin concluded there was strong personal mitigation and a realistic prospect of rehabilitation.
He suspended a six-week jail term for 18 months, ordered Momand to complete a rehabilitation requirement and told him to sign the sex offenders’ register for seven years.
“In my judgement, your actions reveal a lack of self-restraint, arrogance and a fundamental misunderstanding of social boundaries,” the judge told him. “You specifically targeted this woman who, in these circumstances, was particularly vulnerable.”
