A REFUGEE who terrorised women late at night in Newport had his "excessive" sentence cut by a third by top judges.
Omed Morad, 34, of Griffin Street, Newport, was originally jailed for three years at Cardiff Crown Court last November after admitting sexual assault and assault causing actual bodily harm.
Morad, who came to the UK seven years ago from Iraq as a political refugee, struck against two women on separate occasions last summer - as they left Newport nightclubs in the early hours.
In the first attack - on June 23 - he confronted his victim after midnight, "staring at her with a big grin on his face" before trying to bar her way.
Morad asked the woman to come home with him, and when she refused he touched her indecently and tried to kiss her.
The woman resisted and tried to wriggle free and was saved by the arrival of her boyfriend, at which Morad ran off.
The second attack occurred on August 25, while Morad was on the bail for the first offence, said Judge David Radford, sitting at London's Appeal Court.
His second victim was returning from a Newport nightclub with a friend when Morad viciously attacked her after she went to the toilet.
Judge Radford, sitting with Lord Justice Laws, said Morad's motiveless assault involved him grabbing the woman by the wrist and punching her several times to the face before hurling her to the ground. He then kicked her several times in the ribs.
Morad only desisted when the woman's companion produced a knife.
Judge Radford said Morad was the worse for drink when he committed his crimes.
The victim of the sexual assault had suffered a "frightening and humiliating experience", he also observed, although the "sexual nature of the assault was limited".
Morad had submitted an early guilty plea and his sentence for the sex crime was "manifestly excessive", the judge concluded, cutting his sentence from three years to two.
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