The mother of a young woman allegedly raped by a Syrian refugee in a beach toilet has described the harrowing moment her daughter called to say she had been raped. The woman told Bournemouth Crown Court she was 'jolted awake' by her phone ringing and panicked when she saw the call was from an unknown number.
When she answered, her then-19-year-old daughter said: 'I need to be picked up, something has happened - I have been raped.' The young woman was allegedly raped by Mohammed Abdullah as she walked home alone along Bournemouth seafront after a night out.
Her phone had died, and when she encountered a group of men, including 19-year-old Abdullah, she asked to look at maps on one of their mobile phones to find her way. One of the group said his friend would give her a lift on the back of his hired Beryl bike. Abdullah rode a short distance before stopping next to some portable toilets, where he sexually assaulted and then raped her, a court heard. Afterwards, he left her there and cycled back to his friends.
The girl went in the opposite direction and stopped a stranger, who loaned her his phone so she could call her mother. Her mother told the court she always double-checked her daughter had her phone before she went out. She said she spoke to her at 10.30pm: 'She was outside Bar So, waiting to go in. She sounded like [her daughter] - happy, excited.'
'I just said enjoy yourself and keep in contact. She said she had to go as her battery was running low and she needed to keep it so she could order a taxi or Uber home. I fell asleep around 1am. I had my phone beside me and on loud because I worry.'
'The phone rang, I jolted awake because it was a number I didn't recognise and that did make me panic. It was my daughter. She said 'I need to be picked up, something has happened, I have been raped'. She did not sound like my daughter at all. It was [her] but it wasn't. She was really distressed. I asked if she knew where she was. She asked the person she was with and said Meyrick Road. I said can I speak to him and then the phone just cut off. I tried to phone back three or four times but it just kept going to answer phone.'
The mother called the police and eventually got a call back from officers that she was safe and on her way to hospital, so she met them there. She said: 'She had a swollen bruised lip, a bruise on her knee, she was a mess and she had a rip in her skirt. She was distressed, in shock. She was a mess and exhausted - she was sobbing so hard.'
The mother also described noticing later her daughter had what looked like finger bruises on her inner thigh. She told the court: 'She told me he had bit her lip. He bent her over, lifted her skirt and then raped her. He said, "You like, you like", whilst raping her.'
Abdullah, who came to the UK from Syria in 2023 under the family reunion scheme and lives in West Drayton, west London, denies rape and sexual assault. The trial continues.
