Jailed: Pakistan-born Atiq Rehman, who was twice refused leave to remain in the UK, was jailed for six years
An illegal immigrant who was twice refused asylum in Britain raped a woman before he could be deported, a court heard yesterday.
Atiq Rehman, 20, spotted his 22-year-old victim leaving a club and tricked her into thinking he was a taxi driver.
He then lured her into the back room of a corner shop and attacked her on a mattress for 45 minutes.
Yesterday the Pakistani national was jailed for six years after he pleaded guilty to two counts of rape.
Sentencing him, Judge Usha Karu said: ‘The fear she must have experienced simply can’t be imagined.’
Rehman had applied for asylum in the UK twice last year.
His initial asylum application and subsequent appeal were rejected by the Home Office.
After his rejection, he dropped under the radar of the authorities and may have used a fake name to avoid detection.
In the hours before the attack, his victim had spent the evening with friends at Infernos nightclub in Clapham, south London.
Within minutes of luring her into the shop, Rehman raped her.
He threatened to tie her up with duct tape if she did not stop crying.
He then raped her again before callously asking her how many children she wanted to have.
After the attack on April 29 he threw her out of the shop. The young woman stumbled to a friend’s house in nearby Balham and called the police.
Describing the attack, prosecutor Jeffrey Israel told Inner London Crown Court the victim met Rehman after becoming separated from her friends outside the club.
‘He approached her and she mistakenly thought he was offering a taxi service,’ Mr Israel said.
‘Mr Rehman had keys to open the metal shutters to the shop, and led her through to the back room.
Attack: Rehman led the woman to Newspoint store in Clapham Common Southside, (pictured) after she became separated from her friends outside the club following a night socialising
There were two mattresses on the floor, and the woman began to cry. She was scared because she didn’t want to be in that room alone with the defendant.’
During the attack the woman was ‘shouting and crying’ and ‘physically trying to push him away from her’, he said.
‘Throughout, she was shouting at him to stop and trying to escape from him,’ Mr Israel said. ‘She told him she didn’t want to do this, and was begging him to stop.
Rather than stopping, he pushed her on to her back and pulled her arms. She was struggling to get away.’
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Club: Rehman had led the girl from outside Inferno’s nightclub in Clapham, south London, (inside pictured) with the promise of a taxi ride home before threatening to tie her up with tape while he carried out the attack.
The owner of the shop, Bilal Akbar, was initially arrested on suspicion of rape, but told detectives he had lent his keys to Rehman, who had fled to Manchester.
Rehman handed himself in to police on May 26, but initially claimed a friend was responsible and he had been wrongly accused.
Later he changed his story and claimed he had consensual sex with the victim. Eventually he pleaded guilty to two counts of rape. However, even in court yesterday he continued to maintain the sex had been consensual.
Rehman, of Thornton Heath, Surrey, was jailed for six years on both counts of rape, to run concurrently, and he was ordered to be deported on his release from prison.
Judge Karu said his crimes had been compounded by an ‘element of abduction’, the length of the ordeal, and the fact he took advantage of a woman who had been drinking.
The judge ordered Rehman, of Thornton Heath, South London, to be deported on his release from prison. Outside court, investigating officer Detective Constable Lisa Greedy, said: ‘This was an horrific attack by a man who had no qualms in exploiting a woman who he believed to be intoxicated.
‘The fact that he then threatened his victim with violence only added to her trauma.
‘I would like to pay tribute to the victim who showed strength and determination throughout the investigation.’
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