Delivery driver Sobirjon Boltaev approached the victim near the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford after she had left a bar in Hackney Wick during the early hours of July 23, 2023.
He tried to talk to her and then kissed her without consent before leading her into a wooded area.
There he sexually assaulted her again as she screamed for help.
The victim was then able to fight him off by kicking him a number of times before running to a road where she flagged down a driver who phoned the police on her behalf.
Boltaev, 26, of Lawton Road in Leyton, was arrested months later and was found guilty of two sexual assaults.
In November 2024 he was sentenced to three years in prison.
But the Solicitor General challenged this sentence, arguing it was unduly lenient and that Boltaev should be given a longer sentence.
At a Court of Appeal hearing on February 21, it was argued that Boltaev had targeted a woman who was “particularly vulnerable”.
The victim could not remember leaving the bar, went the wrong way and was alone at night while it was raining.
Appeal judge Lord Justice Dingemans agreed: “This case, in our judgment, reaches the high threshold of particular vulnerability.
“The victim was uncharacteristically drunk; she had fallen over; she had left the bar in inexplicable circumstances without her possessions; she had walked off in the rain in a random direction; she was alone on a deserted road; and she had a complete memory blank.
“We do not consider the fact that after the assault she was able to run away and flag down a vehicle, given the circumstances and her reaction to the assault, undermines the finding of ‘particular vulnerability’.”
Boltaev, who was working in the UK to send money back to his wife and child in Uzbekistan, had his sentence increased to five years and six months in prison.
Appeal judges were also encouraged by the Solicitor General to step outside the usual guidelines and extend Boltaev’s sentence further due to his dangerousness.
But Lord Justice Dingemans concluded: “We must take account of matters pointing the other way which include the fact that the offender was 26 years old, he had no previous convictions and had never before been arrested or implicated in an offence in the United Kingdom or Uzbekistan.
“He was in regular employment and he had a wife and child in Uzbekistan who relied upon him for financial support.
“In all of those circumstances, although we consider that there is a risk of further offending, it is not a significant risk to members of the public of serious harm occasioned by the commission by the offender of further specified offences.
“We therefore make no finding of dangerousness in this case.”
