A SEX attacker who was filmed on a mobile phone by a woman as he assaulted her in Evesham has been jailed.

Luis Silva was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for the incident, which took place in Evesham at about 4am on Sunday, June 15.

Worcester Crown Court heard the 23-year-old woman had been walking home alone in High Street after a night out at Marilyn’s nightclub when she saw a man on the other side of the road.

He followed her and, when she got to a junction, she saw he had managed to get in front of her and was exposing himself.

Prosecutor Paul Whitfield told the court the man, who was later identified as 22-year-old Silva, asked the woman to touch him.

When she got out her mobile phone and began to film him he followed her and sexually assaulted her by touching her over her clothes.

Mr Whitfield said Silva had slapped the woman in the face and she fell to the floor.

She told him she was recording what he was doing and he tried to grab her phone before she was able to run off.

The pictures were later published in the Worcester News as part of an appeal to track down the attacker.

Silva pleaded guilty to sexual assault, indecent exposure and attempted robbery of the mobile phone.

Sarah Holland, for Silva, told the court the defendant had moved to the UK from Portugal in January this year in search of a better life.

He had moved to Derbyshire to be close to his girlfriend and had got a job in an Evesham fish and chip shop.

She said on the night of the incident Silva had an argument with his girlfriend and his mother, who was visiting from Portugal.

He had gone out to “drown his sorrows” and had spent £150 on whisky, Miss Holland said.

He had “drunk enough to sink a ship” and had no recollection of what happened but was thoroughly ashamed.

Judge Robert Juckes QC said the victim had shown “extraordinary presence of mind” and intelligence in recording what happened.

Silva of Springfield Road, Repton, near Derby, was jailed for three and a half years for sexual assault with three years for attempted robbery and 12 months for exposure, to run concurrently.