Man jailed over seafront attacks

A man has been jailed for five years after carrying out sex attacks and thefts on the beach in Brighton, including four assaults on couples.

Ricardo Tavares, 25, of Montpelier Terrace, Brighton, admitted six sexual assaults and two thefts at a hearing in May at Lewes Crown Court.

He also admitted two charges of unlawful wounding and two of causing actual bodily harm.

He was jailed on Monday and ordered to sign the sex offenders' register.

Tavares was arrested by plain clothes officers in the early hours of 5 March following four incidents between April 2008 and February 2009.

The attacks were linked after a 19-year-old woman was sexually assaulted and her boyfriend, aged 22, attacked when he tried to defend her in February.

At the time Sussex Police described the attack as "nasty and unprovoked"