Rapist is jailed after student victim films attack on her phone
A BRAVE teenager brought her rapist to justice by using her mobile phone to film him attacking her.
Lillian Constantine was set upon as she walked home at night using her smartphone to light her way.
Despite her terror the quick-thinking 18-year-old pressed record when Ashraf Miah grabbed her beneath a street light which the council had switched off to save money.
The magistrate’s daughter can be heard screaming and pleading with the takeaway worker – who was in the UK illegally after overstaying his visa – on the two minute and 47 second clip. He ran off but police used a still from the film to track him down.
Miah, 34, has now been jailed for 13 and a half years in what is thought to be the first time a victim’s footage of an entire attack has helped put a rapist behind bars.
Miss Constantine has waived her right to anonymity to urge other sex crime victims to come forward. She said: ‘It can be hard to fight off a grown man, but if anyone in my situation can grab their phone and try to capture them you may have more of a chance. I’m glad I did it. If I hadn’t, it would have been someone else in the end.’
On the night she was attacked last September Miss Constantine had been recording footage in bars in her home town of Ramsgate, Kent, for her sixthform media studies course at Canterbury College.
Miah pounced as she headed home at 2am, forcing her to the ground. ‘As soon as he touched me on the shoulder I started to record,’ she said. ‘I was screaming the whole time, “I’m filming you, I’m filming you. You are not going to get away with this”.’ The noise woke residents which scared Miah off while his bruised and bleeding victim staggered home. Police were called in and DNA swabs were taken but no match was found. In the end it was the harrowing footage shot on her Samsung phone that proved crucial as an image of the attacker’s features enabled police to identify him as Miah, a Bangladeshi whose work visa ran out a decade ago. He would only admit to attempted rape and Miss Constantine couldn’t face the uncertainty and cross-examination of a full rape trial.
But Judge James O’Mahony, ordering Miah to serve a minimum of nine and a half years at Canterbury Crown Court last month, said that watching the ‘ruthless and determined’ assault on film would stay with him for a very long time.
Miss Constantine is now attempting to put her ordeal behind her as she prepares to start university in Manchester in September. In a plea to other victims to come forward, she said: ‘It may be draining. It may linger, but it won’t define you. I don’t need to feel ashamed and neither should anyone else.’
She said she was angry that the street light above where she was attacked had been turned off, adding: ‘If the lights had been on then I would have had loads of footage of him and it would have been easier for the police. It would have also been a deterrent in the first place.’
Kent County Council said there had been no overall increase in crime reported since its programme of switching off some lights to save money and cut carbon emissions began. It did not turn off lights in town centres or areas with antisocial behaviour problems.
‘Ruthless and determined’