A Reform MP has defended his decision to expose the immigration status of a convicted rapist, after a judge had banned the press from reporting it until the end of his trial. Lee Anderson, MP for Ashfield, unmasked Sheraz Malik, a 28-year-old Pakistani national, as an asylum seeker last year following his arrest for attacking a teenage girl in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire.
Malik was found guilty on Monday of two counts of rape by a jury at Birmingham Crown Court. The trial heard that he and a friend preyed on an 18-year-old woman who was alone in Sutton Lawn park. Her friend had asked a group of men, including Malik, to keep an eye on her while she briefly left, but instead one of the men led the woman to a secluded area and raped her. Malik then dragged her by the hair to a tree and carried out his own attack, allegedly asking: "Did you enjoy that?"
The victim had sent a desperate text to a friend saying "please help me" during the ordeal. Malik, who is said to have told housemates he was smuggled into Britain in the boot of a car, was living in taxpayer-funded accommodation at the time. He reportedly spent time in Italy, Germany and France before arriving in the UK.
At a hearing at Nottingham Crown Court in September, Judge Nirmal Shant imposed a reporting restriction postponing publication of Malik's immigration status until the end of the trial, citing a "substantial risk of prejudice to the administration of justice." The trial was later moved to Birmingham amid increased publicity following Mr Anderson's social media posts, which triggered an anti-immigrant protest in Sutton-in-Ashfield.
After the verdict, Mr Anderson said: "It's obvious that the police and the whole judiciary were very reluctant to allow the public the true identity of this vile creature. The public deserves better which is why I exposed the truth." Malik's alleged accomplice, an Afghan national, is believed to be abroad after going on the run. In court, Malik was asked why he took advantage of the victim and replied: "What else was I supposed to do?"
