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Pervert Steven Kinsella jailed after attacking girl in Rochester street

A convicted sex fiend who attacked a teenage girl on a quiet street at night has been given an extended sentence for a second time to protect the public.

Steven Kinsella served just over three years of a five-year term for sex assaults on young women on a train and at a railway station in 2004.

Now, the 38-year-old pervert, of Cooks Wharf, High Street, Rochester, has been locked up for seven years with an extended licence period of two years.

Steven Kinsella, jailed for a sex attack in Rochester
Steven Kinsella, jailed for a sex attack in Rochester

Judge Michael Carroll said: “I would take leave of my senses, wouldn’t I, if I came to any other conclusion than he is a dangerous man.”

The jury of seven men and five women were told about the previous conviction.

The 18-year-old girl said she had been to the City Wall pub in Rochester and left the area in the early hours of September 25 last year to walk to a friend’s house.

A man on a bike wearing shorts - later identified as Kinsella - had been seen riding around on a mountain bike and lurking near a bench opposite the pub.

CCTV cameras captured him stalking the victim down Crow Lane.

“I felt I was being followed,” she said. “Suddenly, I was pushed from behind. I fell to the floor. He started touching me all over my body.

“He put his hand up my skirt. He pulled at my knickers. I tried punching him.”

She eventually managed to escape, running towards Watts Avenue.

“I tried to hide,” she said. “I tried to hold my breath but I was breathing heavily.”

She went to the friend’s home and the police were called. She suffered bruising and grazes to her wrists and legs.

Judge Michael Carroll
Judge Michael Carroll

The victim attended an identification procedure but was unable to pick out her attacker. Another witness did identify him.

A resident told in a statement of being awoken by screaming.

“When I looked outside I saw a young female on her back on the floor with a male on top of her,” he said. “She was screaming and struggling in an attempt to get away,”

When he went to his front door the man got up and rode off.

Kinsella denied sexual assault, claiming he was at home all evening.

Judge Carroll told him: “You have been convicted on overwhelming evidence. You clearly target such women. Her naked flesh was touched. Violence was used.

“I would take leave of my senses, wouldn’t I, if I came to any other conclusion than he is a dangerous man?" - Judge Michael Carroll

“You have previous convictions for almost identical offending. It was very frightening.”

Philip Sinclair, defending, had told the jury in his closing speech: “If you conclude it was him, then for all our sakes' convict him.

“If you look at the evidence and say ‘Actually I don’t like to admit it because I don’t like him, but I am not actually sure he did this one’, then the verdict is not guilty.”

Mr Sinclair said after the verdict: “I am struggling for mitigation, because frankly there is none.”

Kinsella’s name will appear on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.

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