Sunday, June 14, 2015

Men jailed for raping lost teenage Polish tourist in horrific assault in London park

Jailed: Mojtaba Changi and Saeed Fatemi targeted their victim because of her vulnerability, police said
Two men who raped a vulnerable Polish tourist in a London park just hours after she had arrived in the UK have each been jailed for 14 years.

Mojtaba Changi, 33, of Lea Bridge Road, Walthamstow, and Saeed Fatemi, 20, of Blackthorn Court, Hall Road, Leyton, were sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on Thursday.

They targeted their 18-year-old victim, who has been left so traumatised she hasn't told her family, after she became separated from friends on a night out.

Police said she bumped into Fatemi in Kingston town centre as she searched for them. He offered to help, walking around with her for 45 minutes while his accomplice Changi followed quietly behind.

Fatemi then led his victim into Canbury Gardens, where the pair pinned her down and raped her.

After the traumatising ordeal, the victim was led from the park and told to run, which she did before raising the alarm to a taxi driver at Kingston Bridge.

Detectives tracked down Fatemi and Changi, whose DNA was found on the victim's clothing.

As officers were arresting Fatemi at his home on September 17, four days after the attack, Changi coincidentally showed up at the house and was also detained.

Detective Constable Ben Hawkins, from Scotland Yard's Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command, said: "The evidence points strongly to this being a pre-meditated and aggressive assault on a young woman who had only arrived in the UK eight hours previously.

"She had come on a 10-day holiday to see friends and because of the events of that night, ended up spending most of her holiday with the police and medical services.

"She was deliberately targeted by Changi and Fatemi owing to her vulnerability at the time.

"So traumatised and confused by the assault is she, that even now she has not felt able to tell her parents and family back in Poland.
"She has shown remarkable bravery in flying back to the UK and giving evidence live in court and I am delighted that the trust she put in the Metropolitan Police to reach a successful conclusion for her has been justified."

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