Description
Paul Sild, aged 34, from Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to more than 20 offences of sexual assault, possession of indecent images and extreme pornography.
Sild was arrested and charged by Hartlepool CID officers in June, after a number of women came forward to report incidents which had taken place on residential streets in the town in May.
Officers found that Sild had approached women who were unknown to him in the street and used a syringe to squirt them with a substance, which was found to contain traces of his DNA. He had filmed these assaults on his mobile phone, which he carried in a hollowed-out book to conceal it.
Following his arrest, officers found evidence of further sexual assaults which had not been reported to police, along with indecent images of children and extreme pornography on his mobile phone.
Sild received four-and-a-half years in prison, with an 18-month extended licence.