Woman told shop staff: ‘I’ve been raped’ – jurors hear

SHOP STAFF COURT STATEMENT SAID ALLEGED VICTIM WAS ‘DISTRESSED’

A distressed woman was “crying” and “bleeding” when she went into a shop and told workers she had been raped by two men, jurors have heard. Saheed Rasoolli, 30, and Araz Abdulla, 23, are accused of each taking a turn to have sex with the alleged victim, against her will, in the bedroom of a flat in asylum seekers’ accommodation at Roker Avenue in Sunderland.

A distressed woman was “crying” and “bleeding” when she went into a shop and told workers she had been raped by two men, jurors have heard.

Saheed Rasoolli, 30, and Araz Abdulla, 23, are accused of each taking a turn to have sex with the alleged victim, against her will, in the bedroom of a flat in asylum seekers’ accommodation at Roker Avenue in Sunderland.

Both men deny rape and are being tried by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court.

Jurors have now heard statements from two staff at a nearby shop where the woman went to report the alleged attack after she left the flat.

One worker said: “The shop door opened and I looked up at I saw this female enter.

“She was crying. She had blue eyeshadow on, which was smudged around her eyes as well as mascara.

“On one side of her face, on her cheek, she had marks, not scratches and also small marks at her neck, near her throat. I also noticed marks on one of her arms, those were bleeding, not much, but as if the skin was broken.

“I could tell by her voice she was upset and distressed.”

The shopworker said the woman had asked for the police to be called.

She added: “I asked why she needed the police and she came straight out with it ‘I’ve been raped’ and told us it had happened in the flats. She also said there had been two men.”

The worker said the upset woman was saying she was “going to be sick”.

A second worker said the woman had told her “two men raped me” and added: “The girl was really upset, I felt in shock by what was happening. I felt worried about her, she was breathing in short, sharp breaths.”

The witness said marks on the woman “looked like they had blood on them”.

She added: “She was rocking back and forth on a seat I got for her to sit on.”

Prosecutors claim the woman, who is in her 20s, had been waiting for a bus in the city in May when she was approached by Rasooli and lured to the flat where she was attacked.

It is claimed Rasoolli had sex with her first before Abdulla, who lived at the accommodation, took his turn.

Abdulla, of Roker Avenue, Sunderland, and Rasoolli, of Hylton Road, Sunderland, both deny an offence of rape.

“She was crying. She had marks on her neck” SHOP WORKER

The trial continues.