Mustafa Hakim 31

Description

A stranger rapist who kidnapped a woman and sexually attacked her in some nearby bushes has been jailed for life after being branded a 'danger' to the public. Mustafa Hakim preyed upon the victim on the Bourne Brook Walkway in Selly Oak just before 8.45am on July 28 last year.

He put his hand over the screaming woman's mouth and then strangled her, warning he would kill her if she carried on making a noise. Hakim then picked the victim up and carried her to some bushes where he pulled down her trousers and raped her.

Following a trial earlier this year the 30-year-old from Rickyard Piece, Quinton, was found guilty of kidnap, rape, strangulation, assault by penetration and theft. The case has since been delayed for a psychiatric report but at Birmingham Crown Court today he was sentenced to life with a minimum of 13 years and four months in custody, minus the days he has spent on remand.

Hakim bizarrely protested that it was 'not fair' he had been sentenced without his legal team, which he disposed of before his trial and represented himself. He maintained his innocence and made disturbing comments about the fact the victim had not attended the hearing. The court heard she has since become a 'recluse' and moved out of Birmingham to the countryside.

Hakim carried out the sickening attack a month after he had been released from prison for an offence of affray and two days after he had been caught looking over a cubicle in the ladies' toilet at Snow Hill railway station. He had been prowling the area in Selly Oak on a bicycle before sneaking up behind the woman on the Bourne Brook Walkway and carrying her away.

Judge Simon Drew Kc said: "It is clear to me you had been looking for a victim for some time. You chose a location not covered by CCTV. You laid in wait and then you attacked her."

Hakim snatched the woman's phone but she managed to call her boyfriend from her smartwatch, which resulted in him hearing the ordeal. The victim managed to struggle free and ran to a nearby resident who called police.

Hakim, who initially picked up a stick, fled the scene, changed his clothes and got on a bus to Acocks Green before being arrested. In a statement the victim said she had been left 'scared to be alone at any time whether in the day or the night' adding that Hakim had 'completely taken away my independence'.

It took her weeks to tell her friends what had happened to her and now described herself as a 'recluse' that 'doesn't socialise at all'. She added: "What this man has done to me. I'm not the same person anymore. I'm not me."

Hakim has 23 convictions for 43 offences including making threats with a knife, shoplifting and affray. Asked if he wanted to say anything he replied: "My legal team ain't turned up and that. I don't think that's fair."

He then went on a rant about the victim adding: "She knows she's lying you get me? If she was telling the truth and it meant that much to her she would turn up every day. All I know is it wasn't me, you get me?"

The trial heard that DNA taken from the victim was a 'billion to one times more likely' to have come from Hakim than anyone else, while she had picked him out in a identification procedure. CCTV caught him loitering at the scene prior to the attack and cell site analysis showed that he had the victim's phone afterwards.

Judge Drew told him that he had 'explained the risks' of representing himself prior to trial and reminded the defendant 'that's what you chose to do'.

He acknowledged Hakim had been assessed as suffering from 'delusional disorder' and was likely 'harbouring paranoid delusions' at the time of the offence. Judge Drew concluded he was a 'dangerous offender' after taking into consideration the nature of the rape offence, the fact he had still not taken responsibility, his behaviour in the train station cubicle two days prior, his criminal record and mental health.

He said: "Going forward I can see no obvious time in the future where you will not present a significant risk and substantial risk to members of the public."

Hakim began remonstrating again after the sentence was announced and asked to speak to his solicitors, to which Judge Drew replied: "You know you don't have any."

He will remain on the sex offender's register for the rest of his life.