Jail letters claim rapist ‘innocent’
A MORBIDLY obese rapist who threatened his victims by claiming to know where Osama bin Laden was living has written from jail professing his innocence.
Noureldin Derwish was jailed in December 2013 after a jury found him guilty of 13 counts of rape, two charges of false imprisonment and three of making threats to kill.
The court heard at the time Derwish had approached a 17year-old girl at a train station and offered her drugs in exchange for sexual favours.
She refused and gave Derwish a false name but he later contacted her on her mobile and told her she had to meet him. He threatened that his Egyptian mafia connections would become involved if she did not comply.
He raped her in a Fawkner hotel before handcuffing her to a bed, holding her captive and raping her again.
Derwish also forced a second victim, who he had lured under the false pretence of a job, to have unprotected sex on a string of occasions and to make two sex videos.
He was jailed for 12 years and three months with a minimum sentence of eight years.
But in letters dated August 8 and addressed to the Geelong Advertiser, he claims he is an “innocent man locked up in jail for a crime I never committed”.
In the two-page letter sent from Port Phillip Prison, Derwish, who has a mental impairment, says he still plans to appeal and has even contacted the Queen in a bid for leniency.
An attached letter — on Buckingham Palace letterhead — thanked him for his letter but said it was a not a matter for the Queen.
“The letter has been passed to the Governor-General of Australia so that this approach to the Queen may be known and consideration given to the points raised,” the letter read.
In his letter, Derwish said articles published about him were “all fake”.
“I am going to clear my name, so I’m going to tell the truth about what happens,” he said.
In sentencing, Judge Gabriele Cannon said that while Derwish was mentally impaired, the planning behind his offending showed a significant level of understanding of its seriousness.