A young mum who was raped by a man after he tricked her into a fake Uber following a Christmas night out has said she thought she was 'going to die'. Mohammed Al Masri, 25, offered to take the 'extremely drunk' woman home, but instead took her to his house in east Manchester where he raped her as a friend watched and possibly filmed part of the attack, a court heard.
Attack and Arrest
The victim, in her 20s, had been out drinking with a friend in Manchester city centre on December 21 last year. At the end of the night, she tried to get a taxi but was followed by Al Masri and an associate. They offered to get her an Uber home, and she saw them type her postcode into the app, so she believed they were taking her home.
However, she began to feel unsafe and shared her live location with her boyfriend via WhatsApp. Instead of taking her home, they took her to Al Masri's house in Abbey Hey, Gorton, where she was carried inside and raped. After seeing her live location, her boyfriend alerted police, who arrested Al Masri moments after the attack.
Sentencing and Victim Impact
Al Masri, a political refugee from Syria, was found guilty of rape by a jury and was jailed for eight years. The judge ruled him a dangerous offender. In a victim impact statement, the woman said: "I remember thinking 'I am going to die'." She described feeling frozen with fear and thinking about her children.
In a statement, Anna Mackenzie from the Crown Prosecution Service said: "Mohammed Al Masri posed as a 'good samaritan' when he offered to help the woman get a taxi home after a night out, but his motives were far more sinister." Detective Constable Oliver Smith from GMP thanked the survivor for her courage and urged anyone who has experienced rape or sexual assault to come forward.
