Jail for serial buttock slapper

A serial buttock slapper who smacked and grabbed the bottoms of four women as they walked down the street has been jailed for 26 weeks.

Thomas McVean, 38, assaulted the women near his home on Nevern Place, Earl’s Court, on August 31, 2020.

‘This was a series of sexual assaults all occurring on one day,’ David Burns, prosecuting, said.

‘He has targeted four females and assaulted each of them on separate occasions.

‘Each of the assaults consisted of a slapping hard at a buttock area or grabbing, causing shock and pain.’

The first woman said she was on her way home when she saw McVean staring at her. She felt unnerved but continued to her home.

As she was climbing the stairs to her flat she felt a hard slap on the buttocks which she said shocked and distressed her.

In an impact statement she said: ‘It made me feel like a piece of meat. Now when I go to my door I have to look around to make sure no one is there.

‘Nothing like that has happened to me, it has made me feel less safe. I’m worried about seeing him again and him doing something worse.’

The second woman, a student, said she walked past McVean on the street before feeling a slap on her buttocks.

Despite her shock, she followed him down the street so she could identify him.

‘She says that following the incident she stopped walking to work, she now takes the bus and has moved away from the area,’ Mr Burns said.

‘She takes early shift work, not evenings, as she realises how dangerous it is and she sometimes has dreams of someone following her.’

The third woman was also assaulted while walking down the street after seeing McVean staring at her.

She said: ‘Females are told to be cautious while walking on their own in the dark. This is the rule indoctrinated in us. That’s 50% of our lives restricted.

‘What I cannot accept is that because of the actions of this man I cannot walk alone in broad daylight.

‘If he could do this to me brazenly in full daylight in front of everyone, what is he capable of in the dark?

‘I hope his freedoms are taken away in the same way he has taken away ours.’

The fourth woman was in the same area with friends in the middle of a photoshoot when McVean walked past staring at them.

Later, she saw him again and felt a hard slap from behind. It was so hard she said it was stinging and that when she took a shower there was still a red mark.

‘The incident has caused her a great deal of psychological and emotional distress,’ Mr Burns said.

‘She is hyper-vigilant in the day and night. She is more sensitive of aggressions in crowded areas. It has affected her romantic relationships and has impacted her well being.

‘She has therapy and massages to relieve the stresses on her body.’

McVean, of Nevern Place, Earl’s Court, denied but was found guilty of four charges of sexual assault at trial. He also admitted failing to turn up to court on three occasions.

‘We say this was planned,’ said Mr Burns.

‘It was prolonged, on one day, and many of the complainants described feeling as though it was planned.’

Yasmine Eshaghian, defending, said: ‘The prosecution say this was planned, I don’t agree. I don’t think he is well and he needs some treatment.

‘If he is given a custodial sentence and these issues are not explored then it may lead to a worse situation when he is released from custody.

‘On the day these offences occurred he instructed me that he had taken some crystal meth.

‘He’s not a drug user as such but that might have been why these offences were aggravated on that day.

‘This must have had an awful impact on the victims, but what I will say on his behalf is that these offences were carried out some time ago and through the majority of the court proceedings he has been on bail and he hasn’t committed any similar offence.’

Judge Louisa Joanna Cieciora sentenced McVean to 26 weeks in prison and ordered him to pay £50 compensation to each of the victims.

She told him: ‘As you are aware these are extremely serious offences, on four different occasions you assaulted four different women by slapping or grabbing their buttocks.

‘One was compelled to leave the area because she felt so afraid, one was extremely distressed because it happened on her doorstep, one felt targeted, another felt hyper-vigilant as a result. These are horrific offences.

‘When I take into account the fact that it was on one day and you were on drugs at the time I am satisfied that there wasn’t planning.

‘You’ve got no previous convictions, you’ve shown remorse, you do have some mental health difficulties and there has been no offending since these matters took place, but what makes it worse is the location.

‘It was in the home areas of where these women live.’