A sexual predator who targeted sleeping women on the Night Tube has been jailed after a tip-off from police led to his identification. Salman Yousaf, 46, was already serving a prison sentence when the Metropolitan Police alerted British Transport Police (BTP) to his offending pattern in 2024.
BTP reviewed unsolved cases and linked Yousaf to a series of sexual assaults committed between 2017 and 2021. He admitted eight counts of sexual assault and one of outraging public decency. On May 20, he was sentenced at Inner London Crown Court and placed on the sex offenders register for life, with a sexual harm prevention order.
His first offence occurred around 5am on March 11, 2017, when he masturbated in front of a woman on a Central Line train near Stratford. He then sexually assaulted eight other women on Central and Jubilee line services, targeting lone passengers who had fallen asleep. BTP said earlier identification was hindered by a lack of on-train CCTV and his failure to swipe in or out at ticket barriers during several offences.
Detective Constable Iryna Cuthbert said: 'Salman Yousaf is a calculated predator who deliberately exploited the night-time rail network to target lone women. Even when confronted, he showed a complete lack of remorse.' She added that the information from the Met Police allowed them to link him to a catalogue of offending and extend his time behind bars beyond 2030.
Yousaf was already serving a seven-and-a-half-year sentence for a separate attack, in which he led a sleeping woman from a Tube station and sexually assaulted her near West Ham. Met detectives identified him through CCTV and his frequent use of Forest Gate station.
