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A sexual predator followed a vulnerable woman as she got a taxi home from a night out before assaulting her for over an hour in a dark alleyway.
The young woman had been out with friends in Fallowfield when her friends ordered her an Uber home using her phone. But a car began to follow them.
CCTV showed Abbas Ahmed, 32, following closely behind the taxi before the woman stopped the journey home short. She then got out of the cab and began walking home, appearing to ‘walk into a parked car’ and seemed ‘clearly drunk’, prosecutor Geoff Whelan said.
“The defendant parked further up and noticed her walking down the road and quickly caught up with her,” he said.
“He grabbed hold of her hand and put his arm around her. She was unsteady on her feet.”
At one point the woman was seen to point towards her address, before Ahmed led her towards an alleyway. He then kissed her hand to encourage her, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Whilst walking over to the alleyway she was seen to push him away before he grabbed her hand. In the alleyway he sexually assaulted her.
The woman would later tell police that she had no memory of the taxi journey and only vague memories of being bent over and feeling something pulling her shorts and underwear down before pushing against her.
“The Crown’s case is that she was simply too intoxicated to consent,” Mr Whelan said.
The woman thought the assault took place over the course of five and ten minutes. However, CCTV revealed the ordeal lasted an hour before Ahmed left the woman alone in the alleyway.
She could be seen on the footage briefly illuminated by a passing car’s headlights as she was propped up against a wall with her dress pulled up to her waist.
As Ahmed left the scene, the young woman managed to find her way home where she met up with her friend. She had her underwear in her hand, it was said.
Whilst she got ready for bed, she mentioned to her friends about a ‘man in an alleyway’, but as they were unsure of what happened they thought to let her rest. A couple of days later she informed the police that she had been sexually assaulted.
In footage of the incident played to the court, the taxi is seen driving up the road to make sure the woman was OK. As he had seen she was ‘not in distress’ he drove away.
During the hour-long assault, the woman was seen to momentarily stumble out of the alleyway looking disorientated and dazed.
Ahmed’s DNA was later found on her genitals, the court heard.
In a statement, the woman said she struggles with fear, anxiety and sadness. She said she had struggled with friendships and whilst she had no physical injuries, she suffered a ‘mental toll’.
She added that she now doesn’t drink and feels unsafe around men. “I’m doing my best to move forward, but the effect still lingers," she added.
The court heard that Ahmed had a previous conviction for sexual assault, in which he had followed his victim in a car.
Mitigating, Gemma Maxwell said: “Parts of the journey, she was kissing him and holding his hand.
“The offences began upon losing his job. He was at a low ebb and was lonely and had time on his hands.”
Sentencing him as a ‘dangerous offender’ under sentencing provisions, Judge Patrick Field KC said: “The evidence shows that you are a sexual predator. You preyed upon a lone female unknown to you.
“She was alone and vulnerable. She was very drunk, so drunk that she was unable to consent to what you did and unable to remember what happened.
“You were fully aware of her condition. She tried to resist but was overpowered by force or persuasion.”
He described the offence as ‘thoroughly organised, planned and premeditated.
Ahmed, of Meade Grove, Longsight, was handed 50 months imprisonment with an extended licence period of 48 months.
He was also made subject of the Sex Offenders Register and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order until further order.
