Sex fiend who attacked runner in Sandwell Valley is jailed
A sex fiend whose attack on a terrified runner was foiled by three passing cyclists has been jailed for three years.
Shane Codd chased his victim as she jogged in Sandwell Valley Park, knocking her to the ground, pulling back her hair and putting his hand inside her clothing, a court heard.
She was so traumatised by the assault that she has since left her home town of West Bromwich to live in a new area, Mr Simon Foster, prosecuting told Wolverhampton Crown Court.
The judge commended the actions of the cyclists, who went to her rescue and helped detain 51-year-old Codd.
Mr Foster said: “She was lucky, she doesn’t know what would have happened to her if they hadn’t heard her screams.”
The woman encountered Codd on June 18 last year when he moved out of her way to allow her to overtake and she had smiled at him as she ran past, the court heard.
But seconds later, she heard an ‘Oy!’ and turned to see that he was exposing himself. He then made a lewd suggestion, said Mr Foster.
She ran on, hoping he was ‘just a flasher’, as she later told police, but at the same time felt unnerved and tried in vain to call her daughter on her phone.
The next minute she heard rapid footsteps behind her and was flung on the ground by Codd, who grabbed her arm and pulled her hair as she lay face-down. She told police: “He looked like he had pure hatred in his eyes.”
Her assailant tried to pull her into bushes, causing her to scream and kick out, said Mr Foster. But Codd continued the attack, breaking a bra strap and touching her breast, ripping her skirt and putting his hand inside her underwear. She broke free and ran off but he caught her again.
The five-minute assault only ended when her screams were heard by the cyclists, who sped to her aid. Codd claimed he had only run after the woman to ask her for a date and that she had punched him.
Mr Chris O’Gorman, defending, told the court that Codd had learning difficulties and had suffered ‘what amounted to a breakdown’ following his mother’s death 18 months ago. He was also coping with depression.
He said Codd had taken the runner’s smile as she over took him as ‘an invitation’.
Codd, of City Road, Tividale, pleaded guilty to exposure and sexual assault. Jailing him for three years, Judge Dean Kershaw said his victim ‘must have been petrified’ and described Codd as her ‘worst nightmare’. The defendant was also put on the sex offenders list indefinitely.
