muslim Businessman, 40, who went on a 7,000 mile 'rape tour' of Britain’s universities to target women

• Tahir Nazir of Glasgow used university events to sneak into student halls 
• A woman in Manchester awoke to find him licking her and attempting rape
• In Cardiff he was seen on top of a woman as she lay drunk at student hall
• Convicted of six offences including sexual assault and jailed for 12 years

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Jailed: Tahir Nazir from Glasgow used university events to sneak into student halls and homes

A businessman who went on a 7,000 mile ‘rape tour’ of Britain’s universities targeting women rendered helpless by cheap Freshers’ Week drink promotions was jailed for 12 years today.

Tahir Nazir from Glasgow used university events to sneak into UK student halls and homes in the hope of targeting drunk undergraduates.

One woman who had been to a Halloween party in Manchester woke up to find 40-year-old Nazir half-naked, licking her neck and trying to rape her, while in Cardiff he was seen lying on top of a woman as she lay drunk at student halls.

At Manchester Crown Court he was convicted of trespass with intent to commit an offence, sexual assault, attempted rape, and three charges of trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence.

Nazir, who claims to be the boss of a hospitality and entertainment firm, was arrested last year after a group of female undergraduates reported someone trying the doors to their room.

Police found empty packets of Viagra in his car and a fake ID claiming he was student at Glasgow University. Prosecutors said he had driven 7,000 miles on a tour of university towns Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Oxford, Bristol and Cardiff, during which he slept in his car.

Nazir had conducted surveillance on student activities at Victoria Halls of Residence at the University of Manchester, taking 38 images on his mobile phone.

 He also carried out internet searches for ‘high school girls’, ‘Freshers’ Week’ and ‘Swansea University Students Union’.

Nazir would swallow Viagra tablets and snort cocaine in a bid to heighten his sexual appetite.

The court heard he had been a student himself in the 1990s but never graduated despite enrolling on business studies or IT degrees at the University of Dundee, University of the West of Scotland at Paisley and the University of Strathclyde.

He claimed to a ‘serial entrepreneur and investor in people’ providing ‘Hollywood-inspired’ luxury services in the UK and Dubai.

But the divorcee had a ‘sexual obsession’ with students and researched college events where he knew undergraduates would be drunk and incapable of fighting off his advances.

Henry Blackshaw, prosecuting, said: ‘Evidence shows him travelling from Scotland down into England, through England and down into Wales - all part of sexually predatory behaviour targeted at university undergraduate females.

‘It was not just targeting them in general - but targeting them within accommodation.

‘During the dead of night he broke into accommodation using one device or another, and then having done that, on two of the occasions, sexually attacked females who are asleep in their beds.

‘Freshers’ Week was a time of year when students are full of excitement, getting drunk, no doubt providing easier targets.’

In the early hours of September 22 last year a visitor to a shared house in the Cathays student neighbourhood of Cardiff awoke to find Nazir lying on top of her ‘very drunk’ friend after he broke in through a bathroom window.

He and the victim fell out of bed, causing her to bang her head and although he fled the scene, he returned shortly afterwards to pester and proposition the woman and her friend before other housemates forced him to leave.

On November 1 Nazir sneaked into New Lawrence House student halls in Hulme, Manchester, behind one of the students. 

He tried to follow her as she staggered towards her room, but she shut the door before he could get in.

Freshers’ Week was a time of year when students are full of excitement, getting drunk, no doubt providing easier targets 

Henry Blackshaw, prosecuting

He then stalked the corridors, trying doors, in search of another victim. 

Shortly afterwards a young woman woke up to find cocaine-fuelled Nazir licking her neck, naked from the waist down and ‘thrusting himself against her’.

He was forced out of the room, but he tried to get into other rooms in what prosecutors said was a ‘sexually frustrated and aroused state’.

Nazir was arrested on November 6 last year after girls in a shared house in Fallowfield reported someone was trying the doors to their room, and began texting and Facebook messaging each other about it at 4.40am. He was linked to the other offences by DNA.

Nazir denied all the allegations in the trial, saying he had been invited back to the halls by female students in Cardiff and Hulme, and that he was looking for a drug dealer who had ripped him off in Fallowfield.

He claimed his tour of Britain was a motoring ‘trip of a lifetime’ saying he loved driving and was ‘inspired by Gothic architecture’.

He said he had fake university ID for getting discounts, and used Viagra to give him ‘energy’ for clubbing. Nazir was ordered to sign the Sex Offender Register for life.