Woman begged 'leave me alone' before she was raped near court building, trial hears
A woman was “frozen” with fear said she begged “leave me alone” before she was raped by a stranger near a court building after a night out, a court heard.
She broke down in tears while giving evidence at Portsmouth Crown Court in front of her alleged rapist Mubarak Ibrehim, with her heard saying “I don’t know if I can do this” as she was ushered from the courtroom for a break.
Ibrehim, 25, of St Helen’s Parade, Southsea, is accused of raping the woman in her 20s at the back of Portsmouth Combined Court Centre in Alec Rose Lane where he is on trial. The incident happened between 3am and 4am on Wednesday, June 11, last year after the pair had both been to Astoria nightclub.
Ibrehim, a Sudanese national who was living at the Royal Beach Hotel and has an Egyptian Arabic translator for the trial, denies charges of rape and voyeurism after he filmed the attack - with him claiming it was to prove he had consent.
The incident happened when the alleged victim left Astoria around 3am with a friend who went to buy drugs from an unknown man.
The woman sat on a kerb around the back of the club as she waited for her friend to return after not wanting to be involved in buying drugs. She was then approached by Ibrehim and another man, who left after a few minutes, the court heard.
The woman, recalling what happened next during the incident, said: “(Ibrehim) was saying how pretty I am and he wanted to take me back. I said I was just waiting for my friend.
“He started kissing me without saying anything and stopped whenever people walked past. I didn’t really know what to do or say.
“I tried to push him away. I said, ‘please leave me alone.’ He said some stuff I didn’t understand…I didn’t know where he was from. He was mumbling.
“He stood up and took my hand and took me into a corner and put my hand down his trousers…I didn’t really know how to react. I just kept my hand there as I didn’t want him to hurt me.”
The woman said she was “grabbed” round her left arm before she was pushed into the court entry area and was “frozen” as she was raped. “He took my trousers and pants down and turned me round against a wall,” she said. “I felt scared (that) if I turned away he would hurt me even more.”
The alleged victim said her ordeal lasted about six minutes with Ibrehim only stopping intermittently when interrupted by car headlights. After he had finished, the woman added: “I just stood there. I didn’t know what to do.
“(Ibrehim) grabbed my hand and said: ‘Do you want to go back to mine?’ I said: ‘No, I need to find my friend.’ I walked off and then ran.” After finding her friend by the steps of Guildhall she was sick.
Asked to describe her attacker, she said: “He was black, he had a big nose and brown eyes.”
The woman said she thought Ibrehim asked if she remembered him from inside Astoria but could not be sure if she had spoken to him. “I had so much to drink. We were drinking from 9pm until 3am,” she said while recalling she had drunk four ciders and up to nine shots in a pub before the club.
Inside the venue she had three vodka Redbulls with a tequila shot each time and a couple of VK Ice drinks. “I would not normally drink that much,” she said.
The following day, the female said she received messages from an unknown number, which asked if she was ok. Unsure who was messaging her, she said Ibrehim then said: “We met after the party do you remember?”
The woman thought she had “changed digits up” when she gave the defendant her number prior to the attack and got “upset and angry” when realising who was messaging her. “I said: ‘It’s you, you’re the one who did everything.’”
Ibrehim then edited his messages, changed his name and profile picture on his Whatsapp account, the woman said.
When asked how she felt when finding out that Ibrehim had recorded the incident, the woman said: “I felt awful and honestly felt like giving up. I didn’t realise he took a video. I felt numb. I don’t know how to feel. I feel sick every time I think about it.”
Ibrehim denies rape and voyeurism.
The trial continues.