A man has been jailed for six years and nine months after raping a 19-year-old woman in a portable toilet on Bournemouth promenade. Mohammed Abdullah, a 19-year-old refugee from Syria, attacked the woman after offering her a ride home on the back of a hired bike late at night.
Abdullah, from West Drayton, Middlesex, stopped at the portable toilet and dragged the drunken and vulnerable victim towards it. He sexually assaulted her before bundling her into the loo, locking the door and raping her. After the attack, he cycled back towards his friends on the prom.
Victim's ordeal
The victim, now 20, flagged down a stranger and used his phone to call her mum, telling her, 'I've been raped.' She cannot be named for legal reasons. During the trial, she told the court she whimpered like a 'puppy dog' and was crying during the attack.
"I told myself something is going to happen here," she said. "I remember being pinned. I tried to fight a little bit. I couldn't really do anything; I was in shock. I was whimpering like a puppy dog."
She added: "He said 'you like', obviously I said no, but he wasn't listening. When I realised I wasn't going to be able to go anywhere, I just gave up. I was just hoping it was going to be over."
The victim said she was vulnerable because she was drunk at the time. "I feel if I had been sober, it wouldn't have happened," she said. "I would have been able to protect myself more, push him off me more."
Impact statement
She broke down in tears as she read her victim impact statement in court. She said she has suffered 'panic attacks' since the incident and has a recurring nightmare where she ends up trapped in the portaloo. Her ordeal has left her afraid to go out alone and 'petrified of all men'.
She said she has been diagnosed with PTSD and has considered taking her own life. "Before this, the beach was always my favourite place to go," she added. "Now, when I go there, my chest feels tight, and I can't breathe. I have flashbacks to that night, and I can feel him breathing on me, putting his hands up my skirt, and I can smell him."
Abdullah denied raping the woman and claimed they had consensual sex. He had come to the UK in 2023 under a family reunion scheme and was granted permanent leave to remain. He was found guilty of both charges by a jury on May 15 after an eight-day trial at Bournemouth Crown Court.
Sentencing remarks
In jailing him, Judge Robert Pawson told Abdullah he was a 'sexual predator' who 'knew precisely what he was going to do' when he saw his victim in a 'vulnerable' state. The judge said: "She believed until you raped her that night that she was safe in her home town walking alone at night."
Richard Tutt, defending, said Abdullah was a young man of previous good character who had been studying at West Thames College and worked as a trainee barber in Hounslow. He said his client would find custody 'particularly difficult' due to his limited English and his 'difficult and deprived' background.
Judge Pawson noted that while Abdullah maintained his innocence, he found his evidence during the trial to be 'nonsense' and 'poppycock', as well as demeaning to the victim.
