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Woman who was raped and left in an alleyway was then raped again by a passer-by as she lay helpless

 

Kevin Rawlinson
Tuesday 30 October 2012 10:57 GMT

A woman who was dragged into an alleyway and raped was then raped again by a passer-by as she lay helpless.

Mustafa Yussuf, 21, was jailed for seven years for the initial attack yesterday but detectives are still hunting for the second man, who has never been identified.

The woman was attacked on New Year’s Eve in Manchester city centre. She was led into the alleyway near the city’s Church Street by Yussuf after being refused re-entry to a nightclub. There, the then 20-year-old raped her. And, instead of coming to help her as she recovered from that ordeal, another man raped her again as Yussuf fled.

She was unable to remember the attack for hours afterwards but the court heard that it left her life shattered and her in fear of leaving the house. Judge Steiger told Manchester Crown Court: “At some point in the course of her ordeal she was raped by another individual.

“There was never any charge laid against this defendant [Yussuf] for being party to that incident, which the complainant found in many ways the most traumatic feature of her ordeal.”

Zoe Nield, defending Yussuf, said: “This offence does appear to be an isolated incident, it was out of character for this defendant.” Her client claimed to have had consensual sex with the “mature” woman but the jury found him guilty. The court saw CCTV evidence which showed that the woman, who drank heavily after hitting relationship problems, was unable to stand.

She was turned down when she asked to get back into a nightclub to find her lost handbag but Yussuf led her away. Judge Martin Steiger QC, passing sentence, said he “hadn’t the slightest doubt” that the man – from the Moss Side area of Manchester - was “perfectly aware” she was too drunk to consent to any activity.

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