A sexual predator who targeted lone females on trains and raped a vulnerable woman in the street has been jailed for 13 years.
Maashak Bloomfield, 34, carried out a string of attacks in 2021 and 2022, including flashing at a woman on a train and groping a 17-year-old girl at a London station.
In the early hours of Christmas Eve 2022, he and a second man dragged a woman along the pavement to a secluded spot and raped her behind a van.
Sentencing Bloomfield to 13 years in prison with an extended licence of five years, Judge Rosina Cottage KC said there was a pattern of “risk-takingbehaviour while targeting lone women”.
“You are manipulative and were persistent in behaving in the way that you did to these women, deliberately disregarding their feelings”, she said.
The rape happened in the early hours of the morning, as the woman, who had been drinking, walked home alone.
CCTV showed she was deliberately targeted by the two men, beforebeing dragged to a secluded spot near to railway arches.
“You had planned to take any woman who had come that way”, saidthe judge.
“You lived only minutes away and would have known how quiet andsecluded that area is.”
Bloomfield was convicted at trial of raping the woman, as well asstealing her phone and an assault charge.
He was also found guilty of three sexual assaults on the teenagegirl in January 2021 at Wallington train station in South London.
The girl said Bloomfield kissed her on the lips and neck andgroped her bottom, while she had no idea how to get away from him.
Five days later, he was on a train from Hove into London Victoria whenhe flashed at a woman in her 20s and tried to force her hand on to his penis,in an ordeal that last around an hour.
“He deliberately targeted a lone woman to have a sexual encounterwith her”, said prosecutor Catherine Milsom.
The rape victim said in a victim impact statement that the attackhas “ruined my life”.
“You have made my life hell”, she said, in words aimed directly atBloomfield.
“I can’t form relationships with anyone based on what you havedone to me. I can’t even be in a room with men I don’t know.”
She told the court she has been left unable to work and reliant on daily assistance from her children, while battling suicidal thoughts.
“You have killed me”, she said.
“You have made me feel like I want to kill myself.”
The woman added that she is fearful to go out alone, as theaccomplice is still at large.
The teenager who was sexually assaulted told the court she hasleft London since the attack, and feels unsafe travelling by herself on publictransport.
“I migrate towards other women to try to stay safe”, she said.
“I did consider not reporting this and just tried to block it out, but I knew if I hadn’t done so, he would just carry on and he needs to stopdoing this.”
Bloomfield was cleared at his trial of drugging and raping anotherwoman on a train, on the same day that he was later caught flashing.
The court heard Bloomfield has convictions stretching back to 2015, including multiple incidents of carrying a knife in public, drug crimes, and bouts of violence.
Character references were put forward at the sentencing hearing, describing him as “kind, humorous and willing to help others”.
Before the hearing, Bloomfield also penned a letter apologising tothe victims, having previously kept up his denials in spite of the guiltyverdicts.
Maashak was convicted of rape, three counts of sexual assault,indecent exposure, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and theft, after aBritish Transport Police-led investigation.
