A TEENAGER has been sentenced to four years in prison over an alley sex attack which a judge said “makes women feel unsafe on the streets of their own city”.

Lee Ward was 16 when he dragged the drunk woman into an alley behind the Baby Simple nightclub off Divinity Road, East Oxford at about 2.10am on May 7, 2011.

Ward, 19, was found guilty of kidnapping with intent to commit a sexual offence following a trial at Oxford Crown Court last month, during which his 30-year-old victim gave evidence.

Sentencing the Blackbird Leys Road resident yesterday, Recorder Matthew Lowe said Ward was out drinking with friends and went into a “bad or reckless” mood after an argument with his ex-girlfriend.

Ward took advantage of his victim’s “obvious drunkeness” and she “screamed and struggled” as the father-of-one attacked her and touched her inappropriately.

The Recorder added that, when she fell over, rather than let her go, Ward grabbed her legs and dragged her on her back into a dark area.

Passing student Tom Ladds intervened “preventing what might have been much worse”.

and Ward then “squared up” to him before backing off.

Ward ran off and the earlier trial was told fibres from his hoodie were found on the woman and her DNA was under his fingernails.

Recorder Lowe said it was “a shameful attack on a vulnerable woman”.

He said: “It is precisely the sort of attack which frightens large numbers of members of the public and makes women feel unsafe on the streets of their own city.”

According to the judge, Ward’s evidence during the trial was “transparently false”, he had shown no remorse and the trial “made the victim relive these events, causing her considerable distress”.

Graham Bennett, defending, said Ward was of previous good character and the attack was not planned.