The railway rapist
Refugee roamed UK by train looking for victims after avoiding deportation following earlier prison term
A VIOLENT rapist roamed the country by train looking for victims before striking twice in ten hours in locations more than 100 miles apart.
Temesgen Desta, 32, was jailed for life yesterday after he tied up and raped one woman in her home – having tried to rape another victim at a beach the previous afternoon.
The Ethiopian refugee came to the UK in 2017 but was jailed for six months last year for racially abusing security staff in Newport, Gwent, while in possession of a knife, a court was told. He avoided deportation, leaving him free to target women after being released.
At Birmingham Crown Court, Judge Melbourne Inman ordered the ‘violent predatory rapist’ to serve a minimum of ten years behind bars.
He told him: ‘These were determined attacks with extreme violence on two women in two different parts of the country within a matter of hours. There is no alternative sentence that would provide protection to the public.
‘What your position is in relation to this country and your status is not a matter to me.’
Married Desta tied up his terrified second victim in Birmingham just after midnight on March 15 this year.
He had travelled by train from Liverpool having attempted to rape another woman in Crosby, Merseyside, at 3pm the previous afternoon. He forced his way into the 32-year- old woman’s city apartment, grabbed her by the throat and forced her on to a bed, claiming he was carrying a knife.
Desta then bound her hands with a cord from a bathrobe and tied her legs with a phone charger cord before escaping.
In a statement, the businesswoman said she was forced to live in hotels after the attack.
She said: ‘I couldn’t imagine going to sleep in the same bed and answering the same door.’
The first victim, 54, told how she feared she was dying as Desta attempted to strangle her as she walked in sand dunes.
When he loosened his grip, he told her: ‘I wanted to have sex with you.’ Desta fled after being disturbed by passers-by. Police launched a manhunt after the attacks, warning that Desta was travelling up and down the rail network to select targets.
Desta, of no fixed abode, was eventually caught trying to board a ferry from Scotland to Belfast.
He was found guilty of rape, intention to rape and two counts of false imprisonment following a trial last month.
Desta told the judge he was a ‘lawful refugee’ who had ‘claimed asylum because of the bad politics and relationship I have with my birth country’.
Detective Superintendent Nick Walton, of West Midlands Police, said: ‘These were violent sex attacks which were traumatic and distressing for both women, who were unknown to Desta.
‘He grabbed them by the throat and [they] would have undoubtedly feared for their lives.’