A Pakistani asylum seeker who raped a “particularly vulnerable” 18-year-old woman in a Nottinghamshire park in the UK has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, the BBC reports. 28-year-old Shiraz Malik attacked the teenager in Sutton Lawn Park, in Sutton-in-Ashfield, on June 29 last year.
Malik assaulted the woman after she was raped by an unknown man he was with.Malik claimed the encounter was consensual, but a jury convicted him of two counts of rape in January. He was then sentenced to 10 years in prison plus an additional four years on extended licence.Judge Simon Ash KC stated that Malik attacked the victim despite knowing she was extremely drunk and left alone at night with strange men.
He said the defendant called the victim a “slut” after the attack.“When she tried to resist, I hit her hard in the face and head,” the judge said, adding: “Some of the things I said to her were an additional insult and humiliation to her.”The trial revealed that Malik was an asylum seeker born in Pakistan. He lived in France, Germany and Italy before arriving in the UK less than a year before the attack.
His asylum application has not yet been considered. Strict reporting restrictions had previously prohibited any mention of his immigration status until the end of the trial.The incident sparked protests and counter-protests in Sutton-in-Ashfield last year after it reached social media.The victim was drinking in the park with a male friend. When her friend temporarily left to meet someone else, he asked Malik and his group to “take care of her.”A man from the group took the woman to a secluded area on the pretext of letting her use the toilet and raped her. Prosecuting barrister Nicholas Corsellis QC previously explained: “The defendant then decided that he wished to have sex with her and it was his turn to take her to a secluded location, where he physically beat her while raping her.”Malik claimed that he was playing cricket and smoking hashish in the garden, denying committing any acts of violence.The victim impact statement explains the ongoing trauma the woman experiences. “I find myself struggling to cope,” she said. “I always have nightmares about the accident and the medical examination afterward.” She added that anxiety and stress make it difficult to eat and sleep.Judge Ash described Malik as a “grave danger” to the public, who showed no remorse. “Instead of sympathizing with,” the judge told Malik [the victim]”You seem to just feel hostility and anger toward her.”Nottinghamshire Police are still searching for the first attacker.
