Ian Hudson, a 42-year-old man of no fixed address, carried out a brutal sexual attack on a stranger in Sunderland on the night of 30 December 2023. The incident unfolded as the victim, a woman in her 60s, was walking home from shopping through quiet streets late at night. Hudson suddenly emerged from a doorway and began following her, mumbling incoherently, which made her feel increasingly nervous.
According to court proceedings at Newcastle Crown Court, the woman turned to Hudson at one point and asked him to walk ahead of her, but he gave no reply. She continued walking and eventually sat down in a bus stop, hoping he would pass by and leave her alone. Instead, Hudson entered the shelter and launched a violent assault. He pushed her back, causing her to strike her back on the seat, and began throttling her while gouging at her eyes. The victim fought back desperately as Hudson muttered under his breath, but at one point he spoke clearly, revealing his motive: 'Shut up I want *****'. He then pulled down her leggings and sexually assaulted her roughly, causing injury, before attempting to rape her.
As Hudson tried to rape the woman, she threw herself to the ground, but he picked her up and continued the assault. The attack was interrupted when a nearby student, on his way to a Tesco store, heard the victim's terrified screams emanating from the bus stop. Initially thinking it might be people larking around, the student approached upon hearing the woman shout 'he's raping me' or 'he's trying to rape me'. He saw Hudson standing over the partly lying woman, attempting to pull down her trousers. The student shouted at Hudson, who turned and fled.
The student gave chase and caught up with Hudson, leading to a struggle in which Hudson punched him in the face. With the help of another member of the public, the student restrained Hudson until police arrived. At the police station, Hudson exposed himself in the presence of a female officer, made lewd comments about his genitals, and assaulted her by pushing her into a Christmas tree, scattering it across the floor.
Hudson was convicted after trial of attempted rape, assault by penetration, two counts of assault and strangulation against the woman, and assaulting the intervening student. He pleaded guilty to exposure and assaulting an emergency worker. Recorder David Gordon, sentencing Hudson, described the attack as a case of the woman being 'effectively stalked through the streets of Sunderland in the dead of night'.
The victim, in her impact statement read to the court, expressed profound trauma: 'I didn't know there was evil out there like him. Now I've seen evil and it terrifies me.' She detailed how the incident had made her wary of everyone, changed her routine, triggered panic attacks requiring hospital treatment, and deeply affected her family, with her daughter terrified every time she went out. She believed Hudson would have killed her had the witness not intervened: 'That night, I honestly believe he would have killed me... If the witness had not come along to stop him, the result would be me being dead.'
The court heard that Hudson had 17 previous convictions, including two for arson and one for wounding. Following the sentencing on 13 November 2025, Detective Constable Hayley McIntosh of Northumbria Police praised the victim's courage and the bravery of the intervening student, stating: 'The offences which Ian Hudson inflicted on his victim were truly horrific... we are committed to supporting victims and bringing perpetrators to justice.'