The court heard the victim's attacker, pictured here but who cannot be identified for legal reasons,
A MAN pinned his girlfriend down and raped her in front of their baby son, and told her she must obey him because he was a Muslim, a court was told.
The Mail has decided not to identify the rapist, who is in his early 20s, so his relationship with his victim can be revealed.
She was 16 when they met, but he began beating her three months into the relationship and raped her at her home in Hull in May last year.
The victim, who gave evidence at Hull Crown Court via video link, said she had not reported the rape at the time because she did not understand such a thing could happen in a relationship.
She later said: “I thought rape was to go outside and somebody grabs you.”
Defence barrister Mumin Hashim said she must have been traumatised by the attack.
“I was,” she said. “I was really scared and I was hurt inside. Not physically, it broke my heart because I didn’t think he would do that.”
After the rape, which lasted between 20 and 30 minutes, the man kissed her, told her he loved her, and fell asleep, while she got up to see to the baby, who was crying.
The rapist, who now lives in Buckinghamshire, was also convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm after repeatedly banging his partner’s head against the dashboard of a car.
He was also convicted of two other assaults on her.
The court was told that while the teenager was pregnant with their son, he was thousands of miles away marrying his cousin in an arranged marriage in South Asia.
When he returned, he settled in Buckinghamshire and began fortnightly visits to his son and partner in Hull, during which time he also got another woman in Buckinghamshire pregnant.
Mr Hashim asked why, after having time to reflect on the relationship, the victim did not seek help.
She replied with four words: “Young and scared. Immature.”
In tearful evidence, she said despite knowing about his marriage to another woman, she still hoped he would come back to have a normal family life with her and their child.
She said: “I just wanted him to come back because I wanted my little boy to have what I never had, which was a mum and a dad.”
The victim’s mother told the court why she thought her daughter had not ended the relationship sooner.
“She wanted this fairytale story where mummy and daddy were together,” said the victim’s mother. “I told her it wasn’t always like that.”
Outlining the victim’s evidence at the start of the case, Michele Stuart-Lofthouse, prosecuting, described how the man “became violent, hitting her and telling her he was a Muslim and she should do as she was told.”
Mr Hashim said the only reason the allegations had been made was because the woman feared the man would seek custody of the child.
The man denied ever being violent or abusive towards his victim, and told the court he still loved her.
He was convicted on all counts by a jury and was jailed for a total of five and a half years.
The man was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for life and is also subject to a ten-year restraining order, preventing him from contacting the victim.
Judge Simon Jack told him: “She depended on you and relied on you for affection and support and you took advantage of that to get what you wanted from her and returned little but contempt.”
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