Woman raped against court wall had spoken to alleged attacker in nightclub earlier, court hears
A woman who was allegedly raped up against a court wall had spoken to the man inside a nightclub earlier, a court heard.
Mubarak 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 complainant 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 who started kissing her before raping her while recording the incident, the court previously heard.
The woman said she thought Ibrehim had 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 previously 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.
Under cross examination from defence barrister Colin McCarraher, it was suggested Ibrehim and the woman had in fact spoken inside the club. “Do you remember seeing him in there?” the lawyer asked. “No,” replied the female.
“Do you remember him behind you in the club?” the barrister said, to which the alleged victim replied: “No, not all.”
The woman again denied she was approached in the club by the defendant before Mr McCarraher asked: “Does drink affect your memory?” The complainant replied: “Partially yeah.”
Mr McCarraher continued: “You may have met (Ibrehim) and forgot about it?” The lady replied: “I don’t know.”
The barrister, referring to when they had both left the club, said: “You were walking around - were you looking for Mr Ibrehim?” She replied: “No, definitely (not).”
The woman previously said Ibrehim “started kissing me without saying anything and stopped whenever people walked past. I didn’t really know what to do or say”.
She continued: “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 was raped against a wall. “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.
Ibrehim denies rape and voyeurism.
The trial continues.