Teenage girl’s quick thinking put sex attacker behind bars

A teenager’s quick thinking put a predator behind bars after he sexually assaulted her on a seaside bench.

The 14-year-old girl was on a bench on Sandylands Promenade in Morecambe, Lancashire one September afternoon when Dean Marroni, 34, sat next to her.

After starting conversation, he sexually assaulted her.

When she ran away, she paused for a moment to whip out her phone. On it, she took a photo of Marroni and handed it to the police.

Thanks to her split second decision, officers arrested Marroni at his home soon after, Lancashire Police said.

Marroni, of Marine Road East, Morecambe, was today sentenced to five months in prison for the sexual assault on September 3. He pleaded guilty to the charge.

He has also been handed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and has been put on the sex offenders register, on top of his prison sentence.

Speaking after sentencing, Detective Constable Zoe Hall said: ‘This was a disturbing sexual assault on a teenage girl and we are pleased that Marroni has been sentenced and made subject of notification requirements.

‘We take all reports of sexual assault very seriously and will investigate them thoroughly.’

Marroni was previously convicted in 2021 of four sexual assaults – against a woman and three girls – at Lancaster train station.

On March 15, 2020, he had pretended to be carrying out a survey when he approached a woman, grabbed her leg by the ankle and massaged her foot with both hands.

He then told her he was a massage student, before removing her shoe and sock and tickling her feet, a British Transport Police spokesperson said.

Marroni then turned his ‘unwanted attention three girls’ waiting for a train home. He grabbed their feet, ‘passionately kissed the top of their trainers’, then tried again after initially walking away.

He avoided jail for those assaults, instead being handed a two-year community order, five years on the sex offenders register, and a requirement to pay a victim surcharge of £90.

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