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A sex attacker who left his teenage victim so disturbed she attempted suicide was jailed for four years and nine months today.

The victim, a 19-year-old student at the time, resorted to sticking post-it notes on her kitchen knives to remind her “you’re better than this,” Liverpool Crown Court heard.

Sadik Ali, 24, was locked up after pleading guilty to sexual assault by penetration at an earlier hearing.

The court heard his victim took an overdose on the anniversary of the attack and has since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, by the Liverpool Echo .

Ali, of Windsor Street in Toxteth, had been drinking in Liverpool City Centre on August 9, last year, when he came across the woman.

On the same night the victim had also been out drinking but ended up separated from her friends by the early hours of August 10.

She found herself alone near O’Neill’s pub on Hanover Street and from there decided to phone a taxi to take her home.

The court heard at this point Ali approached the victim and began to speak to her.

Judge Denis Watson, QC, sentencing, said: “She trusted you sufficiently that she agreed to share her taxi with you.

“You seemed to think this was the green light to make sexual advances towards her and began to kiss her.

"She was not overly concerned at that point, but then you began to kiss her neck and touch her arm, outside O’Neill’s, with people staring.”

The court heard Ali started fumbling with her dress and continued to touch her.

Judge Watson said: “By this point she was telling clearly that she wanted you to stop. She told you no but you ignored her and carried on regardless.

“Passers-by were heard to observe that this behaviour was, and I quote, rank.”

The court heard Ali then put his hands under her clothing and sexually assaulted her.

Judge Watson said: “She was telling you to stop and tried to push you away.

"While I accept that this started as a consensual encounter with kissing, she could not have made it clearer that she did not want this to happen.

"You had no concern for her wishes whatsoever.”

Ali was arrested at around 5am that morning after a friend of the victim called 999.

The woman spent that night in hospital.

The court heard a psychiatric report found she had suffered “severe psychological harm” from the attack.

She had struggled to continue her university education and a doctor reported her “behaviour had changed” as a direct result of the incident.

On the anniversary of the assault this year, she took an overdose of anxiety medication.

The court heard Ali accepted he should have stopped when she told him no and had pleaded guilty before a trial.

Ali, a Libyan national, is seeking asylum in the UK and may be deported as a result of the case.