Locations
Belmont Street, Hull, East Riding Of Yorkshire, HU9
Description
A callous rapist who was "on the prowl" outside a Hull nightclub – and deliberately targeted a vulnerable woman who was "hammered" after a night out – has been jailed for 12 years.
Lazarus Olleh coaxed her into a car within about three minutes after he approached her outside in the street. He had earlier parked nearby at about 5.10am to look out for a woman to have sex with and he found just that person, Hull Crown Court heard.
Olleh, 38, of Belmont Street, Hull, denied raping the woman but he was convicted by a jury after a retrial spanning about seven days. An earlier jury in April had been unable to reach a verdict.
Jeremy Evans, prosecuting, said that, during the early hours of October 29 last year, Olleh decided that he wanted to have sex. He was so determined to do so that he drove the short distance from a friend's flat in Whitefriargate, Hull, and parked in a taxi bay outside the Propaganda nightclub – and waited at about 5.12am.
"Over 15 minutes later, at approximately 5.30am, that lone female presented herself – she was 18 years old – and she left the nightclub, dressed in a schoolgirl uniform, together with fake blood on her clothing and face, in a Halloween-theme costume that both she and her friend had chosen when going out the previous evening," said Mr Evans.
The woman, who is now 19, and her female friend had been to Bar Babylon and then Silvers/Yates Bar before going to the Pink Parrot cocktail bar and the Atik nightclub, where they stayed until 3am. The original plan was for them to get a taxi home at about 5am but the two friends became separated and could not find each other.
The woman had been drinking heavily and seemed to be struggling to put her arms into a jacket that had been on her shoulders.
"She crossed the road and sat, alone, with her back to the wall, with her knees pulled up towards her chest," said Mr Evans.
"Within seconds of watching her leaving that nightclub, the defendant walked over, crouched down in front of her and engaged her in conversation.
"In little over three minutes, the defendant walked her to his car, with his arm around her, and assisted her into the front passenger seat before driving away at 5.34am.
"He drove her a short distance, parked up in what turned out to be a short walk from his friend's flat on Whitefriargate." He almost "frogmarched" the woman and she had little option but to comply because because of her drunken state. "He was preying upon a drunken woman," said Mr Evans. "This was the very reason that he targeted her. The defendant had taken hold of her arm at the wrist and then placed his arm around her shoulders as he ushered her to the entrance of the flat."
Olleh took the woman to one of the bedrooms and raped her. She could not remember much about it afterwards except for waking up on her side, facing a wall and immediately realising that someone had been having sex with her.
"Such was her state of fear at the time that she could do nothing to resist," said Mr Evans. "Her next recollection was losing her consciousness once again."
DNA tests later confirmed that Olleh was responsible. The woman was awoken by a second man and helped from the bed to her feet. Olleh and the woman walked to the car, followed by his friend. Olleh asked her for her phone number and she gave a false number.
She was scared, confused and feeling insecure while they were in the car. She asked to be dropped off at the end of a street where a friend lived.
Olleh was eventually traced after police made inquiries at his friend's flat in Whitefriargate. When he was told that the police were looking for him, he contacted them. He gave mainly no comment replies to questions, despite being told about the DNA found.
"She doesn't see herself as a victim," said Mr Evans. "She sees herself as a survivor."
Liam Gregory, mitigating, said: "The verdict has come as a shock to him." Judge Mark Bury replied: "The only person that it has come as a shock to, then."
Mr Gregory said: "It's something that he is going to have to come to terms with. He still feels that he is not guilty of this offence."
The fact that Olleh turned up in his own car and did not use a condom suggested that there was not detailed pre-planning, claimed Mr Gregory.
Olleh was from Nigeria and he had been in this country for only about six weeks at the time. He had previously lived or studied in Canada and Ukraine.
Judge Bury told Olleh that he rejected the idea that Olleh had wanted to help and look after the woman by getting her something to eat and then taking her home.
"She was so out of it that she could not protest or fight you off and she fell back into unconsciousness," said Judge Bury. "She was hammered."
She was awoken after the rape by Olleh telling her: "We are going."
Judge Bury said: "That was because you had achieved your aim, which was to look for and find a vulnerable young female to have sex with. You were on the prowl outside Propaganda and you found exactly what you were looking for in her.
"It's plain that she had no capacity to consent. She was too drunk and too tired. There was some abduction because she did not want to go with you. She was just not able to stop you taking her.
"She has suffered severe psychological harm. She was devastated in the hours following the incident. You were a total stranger. This is the sort of nightmare that people worry about.
"All you wanted was to have sex and, if it involved rape, then so be it and that's what happened."
The woman had the worry for several weeks that she might become pregnant or suffer a sexually-transmitted disease. She later received the all-clear.
"You are a Nigerian national and that means that you fall to be deported at the end of your sentence," said Judge Bury.
Olleh, wearing a white long-sleeved top, showed no emotion as he was led out of the secure dock to be taken down to the cells. He will have to register as a sex offender for life.