Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Four brutes are in jail for gang
Four sex brutes who raped a vulnerable girl after she turned to them for help have been jailed for a total of 49 years.
The 16-year-old victim was gang-raped by the attackers, who preyed on her when she was in a drunken state after she asked them for directions.
Among the rapists was 21-yearold Shershah Muslimyar, of Hovenden Close, Canterbury.
Sentencing the gang on Friday, Judge Heather Norton told them: “This was an appalling and repeated gang rape of a vulnerable girl who had sought your help.
“There were elements of abduction and it was a prolonged incident. The circumstances were degrading, she was pushed on to a mattress, passed between you, and she was raped multiple times.”
The girl was taken to a room above a kebab and pizza restaurant in Ramsgate in September last year and subjected to “a prolonged ordeal of degradation and humiliation”.
Prosecutor Simon Taylor revealed that after pushing the girl on to a mattress, the gang carried out multiple rapes “and laughed as they put her through the ordeal”.
Muslimyar, restaurant owner Tamin Rahmani, 38, and Rafiullah Hamidy, 24, formerly of High Street, Herne Bay, were each jailed for 14 years.
A 17-year-old from Ashford, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was ordered to be detained for seven years.
All four had been found guilty of three charges of rape at the end of an 18-day trial.
Prosecutor Simon Taylor told Canterbury Crown Court: “The girl was undoubtedly drunk and was walking the streets alone late at night. Her drunkenness, youth and vulnerability would have been recognised by the defendants.
“And it was these factors that they took advantage of in the couple of hours that followed.”
Mr Taylor said the girl was taken to the home of Rahmani – a flat above the 555 Pizza restaurant he owned.
“Once there she was raped by men on multiple occasions,” he said. “Through drink, and most likely the trauma of what happened to her, she was unable to provide any detailed descriptions of the attacks.”
Mr Taylor told the jury: “The girl had found herself in a room on the second floor above a takeaway.
“In that grubby room, with an uncovered mattress on the floor, multiple males had sex with the teenager.”
“She says that she did not consent. Indeed, you may well conclude that she was too drunk to give any true consent to any sexual intercourse in any event.
“But what is clear is that each of the men took the opportunity to have a little ‘fun’ at her expense.” Mr Taylor said the teenager had been out with friends that evening and had been making her way home.
He added that she was the equivalent of being twice over the drink-drive limit. The jury was shown video taken by friends of the girl showing her “rolling around the floor drunk” earlier that evening.
After the alleged attacks, she was “escorted” out of the property by one of the men “and left to roam the streets alone”, Mr Taylor said.
The girl was found “sobbing and distressed” by a woman returning home, and taken into her home for safety.
Glenn Harris, for Afghan-born Muslimyar, said he fled the Taliban to come to the UK.
“My client still maintains his innocence,” he said. “This was an isolated incident. He is regarded as an illegal immigrant and he is appealing that ruling.”
Eugene Maclaughlin, for fatherof-five Rahmani, said he had lived in Ramsgate legally and had built up a successful pizza takeaway, and Indian food businesses in Thanet and Canterbury. He said: “Friends describe him as displaying kindness and having a caring disposition, showing a degree of generosity to family and friends.”
Dominic Webber said the 17-year-old was vulnerable to coercion.
“There is nothing to show he is predatory,” he said. “He is an example of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and will pay a heavy price for that.”
After the sentencing the judge praised the police for their painstaking and dedicated investigation.
‘This was an appalling and repeated gang rape of a vulnerable girl’