'I'm a teenage girl who should be able to go out without a care in the world', victim tells 'dangerous' criminal

A teenage girl was dragged into a secluded area and strangled as she walked home from the gym. Jacob Lee, 31, launched a terrifying, random attack on the teenager on a dark night.

The schoolgirl had decided to walk the short distance home from the gym in Salford after being unable to get a lift home. But as she walked down the street, Lee began following her, Manchester Crown Court heard.

He then grabbed hold of her and dragged the girl into a secluded area just off the pavement, where he strangled her. Lee has been declared 'dangerous' and locked up.

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"The experience of [the victim] is the reason that so many women walk the streets in fear," Judge Elizabeth Nicholls said. "I have no doubt that on this night she thought she was going to be raped, injured or indeed killed."

Prosecutors told how the victim had finished a session at the gym at 7.20pm in November last year. She was initially unable to get a lift home from her parents, but after a short while they offered to pick her up.

She said she was already on her way home, so would continue on foot. CCTV footage revealed how Lee began walking 'at pace' behind her, as he began to gain ground.

When he dropped something he'd been carrying in his hand, thought to be a bottle or can, she noticed Lee for the first time, prosecutor Nicola Carroll said. She carried on walking but 'within seconds' he had caught up and was directly behind her.

She began screaming and shouted 'what are you doing?'. Lee then grabbed her from behind and began dragging her across the road into a secluded grassy area just off the pavement.

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