A MAN was caught hiding under a duvet after he assaulted a woman in Pembroke and held a knife to her throat, and sexually assaulted her friend.

Azmain Chowdhury, now 31, of West India Dock Road in London, was jailed after admitting a series of offences against two women on the evening of March 25 to 26.

The court heard that Chowdhury had been in a brief relationship with one of the complainants while he was working as a chef in Pembrokeshire, and he and one of her friends were at her house on March 25.

They were drinking and dancing, and at one point in the evening, Chowdhury touched the woman’s friend on the bottom, prosecutor Georgia Donohue said. The other woman noticed this, and an argument broke out.

Chowdhury had been banned from entering Pembrokeshire at the time as part of a bail condition on an unrelated manner, and had left his passport with one of the complainant’s friends. During the argument, he demanded that she got the friend to hand it back to him.

When she said she hadn’t been able to contact the friend, Chowdhury “flipped over a coffee table” and began verbally abusing her, shouting in her face, slapping her and spitting in her face, Ms Donohue said.

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The woman called the police, but Chowdhury slapped the phone out of her hand and in to the TV, smashing the screens of both.

Chowdhury then grabbed the woman by the throat and shook her. He also grabbed a knife from the kitchen and held it to her throat.

Ms Donohue said the defendant then “got his penis out” and asked the woman to give him oral sex – which she refused.

The court heard that the woman’s friend had gone to bed. She woke up as Chowdhury had his hands inside her trousers and was attempting to kiss her. She told him she wanted nothing to do with him, so he left and resumed arguing with the other woman outside the bedroom.

Later that night, the woman was woken up again by the defendant doing the same thing. The other woman came in to the room and told Chowdhury to leave the woman alone.

When the police arrived, Chowdhury tried to persuade the women to lie to the officers and say everything was fine. The officers were let in, and Chowdhury was found hiding under a duvet.

Hannah George, defending, said the types offences were “out of character” based on Chowdhury’s 11 previous convictions for 23 offences.

“He is ashamed of his behaviour,” she said.

“There is an acceptance he is responsible for the assault.”

Ms George said the defendant said that he “had some insight as to how the complainant [of the sexual assault] would have felt as he had a daughter himself”.

However, the court heard the author of the pre-sentence report had “identified an element of victim blaming” after speaking with Chowdhury.

The judge, Recorder Aidan Eardley, sentenced Chowdhury to two years – comprising of 16 months for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and a further eight months for the sexual assaults. He received no separate penalty for the criminal damage.

Chowdhury must register as a sex offender for 10 years.