A Syrian refugee has been found guilty of raping a 19-year-old woman in a public toilet on Bournemouth seafront after luring her away from the beachfront during a night out, a court has heard.
Mohammed Abdullah, 19, locked his victim inside a Portaloo before subjecting her to a violent sexual assault as she desperately tried to fight him off. He was convicted of rape and assault by penetration following a trial at which he had claimed the encounter was consensual.
Sentencing Abdullah to an inevitable custodial term, Judge Robert Pawson told him directly: “On the 5th to 6th July, having come down from London with a group of other young men, by unfortunate circumstances your path crossed with the complainant. She had had far too much to drink, it was late at night, she was at the beachfront at Bournemouth and, on a whim, you decided to take advantage of that. You deliberately took her further up the beach to the Portaloos which, in my judgment on the evidence, you knew were there and knew they were open. You locked her in a Portaloo and you raped her. The sentence is to be decided on the 3rd July but it will inevitably involve immediate custody.” Abdullah has been remanded in custody until his sentencing hearing.
Prosecutor Mark Eldridge told the trial that the woman had been on a night out with a friend, visiting venues in Charminster before moving on to Bar So in Bournemouth. After drinking a considerable amount, the two friends parted ways and the victim began walking home alone along the seafront. It was there that she encountered Abdullah, who was with a group of friends and offered her a lift home on his e-bike.
The pair stopped at the portable toilets further along the beach, where Abdullah carried out the assault. According to Mr Eldridge, the woman “was wriggling and trying to fight” before concluding that if she stopped resisting “it would be quicker.” He told the court that Abdullah kissed her aggressively, leaving her with a burst lip when she tried to pull away. After the attack, Abdullah rode off on his e-bike while the woman removed her shoes in order to run. She approached members of the public for help, borrowing a phone to call her mother and telling her she had been raped before contacting police. A man who assisted her described her as visibly distressed.
Abdullah arrived in the United Kingdom from Syria in 2023 and was granted permanent leave to remain under a family reunion scheme. During the trial he maintained that the sexual activity had been consensual and that the woman had wanted to hug and kiss him. The jury rejected that account.
