Man who threw white substance on Northumbria students gets put on sex offenders list

A man who threw an unknown white substance on female students has been convicted of 11 counts of sexual assault and placed on the sex offenders register.

In February, Marius Trifan stuffed a rucksack full of syringes filled with a white liquid substance and squirted it on innocent women around the Northumbria Uni campus, a court heard.

The attacks left victims scared they had been squirted with acid or semen, with one going to A&E. However, the liquid was actually white hand soap.

Trifan, a 29-year-old from Newcastle, cycled around the city targeting young women with nine of the attacks happening on the same day. He admitted in court that this was for his own “sexual gratification”.

Last week Trifan was sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court where he was told he would have to sign the sex offenders register for five years.

The judge did not give him a custodial sentence as he had already spent four months behind bars, instead he has been handed a 12-month community order and a restraining order that bans him from carrying syringes in public.

Inspector Louise Jenkins said that Trifan “has made [his victims] feel violated and traumatised because they have been targeted for [his] sexual gratification”.

In the original Facebook in Castle Leazes Ticket Exchange one victim warned other students Trifan was “all around the Northumbria business school and Stepney Lane area” before he threw the liquid on the back of her legs and bum.

Although this student was aware it was soap Trifan’s other victims were worried it may have been sperm or acid. One victim commented on the Facebook post saying how she had gone to A&E after advice from 111.

After victims reported the separate incidents to the police they launched an investigation and through CCTV were able to identity Trifan as the perpetrator.