March 2014 Child rapist Vinit Lala dragged from car by passers-by as he tried to abuse 13-year-old A child rapist was caught by members of the public after he attempted to abuse a 13-year-old girl in his car. Passers-by spotted Vinit Lala (48) as he sat partially undressed in his car in Martin Street, Belgrave, Leicester, with the girl, who wearing her school uniform. They then dragged the married father-of-two, who lived in nearby Harrison Road, out of the vehicle. As he jailed Lala for nine years at Leicester Crown Court on Friday, Judge Richard Brown praised the passers-by for preventing Lala from carrying out any more abuse. The court heard that, after his arrest, Lala denied any wrong-doing and accused the girl of setting him up. But he later admitted one count of raping the girl, one of attempted rape, one of sexual activity with a child and a further charge of kissing and touching the same girl earlier last summer. Prosecutor James Varley told the court: “On October 15 last year, passers-by saw a man and a woman in the car. “They went to rescue her. She was wearing school uniform. “He was immediately saying, ‘I’m sorry. Don’t call the police’.” Mr Varley said Lala had used “coercion, threats, blackmail and emotional blackmail” against the girl. Mr Varley said: “She was vulnerable and at a difficult time in her life and he’d been able to use that time to groom her. “There would be threats to tell other people what she’d done to embarrass her. “He would say, ‘You’ll get in trouble, not me’. “She is a very young and naive 13-year-old girl with no previous sexual experience. “She says she will hope to one day forget about what happened to her.” Matthew Smith, representing Lala, said: “Mr Lala has indicated his desire to address his own behaviour and not do this again. “His only mitigation is his plea of guilty.” Judge Brown said the offences stopped “because on October 15 passers-by saw what was happening in your car and intervened”. “It’s a great credit to them for bringing this abuse to an end. “I’m told there’s no physical injury to the young girl but of course the harm is psychological. It’s always long-lasting and often they never get over it throughout their lives. “She was 13, and the presence of coercion and threats of blackmail are further aggravating factors.” As well as jailing Lala, the judge made him subject to a restraining order to protect the girl, and a sexual offenders prevention order stopping him from having any unsupervised contact with underage girls. Both orders are indefinite.