Two night prowlers from Halifax caged for raping a vulnerable Huddersfield teenager as she struggled home have failed in a bid to clear their names.
Mubasher Ahmad and his brother-in-law, Mehmood Hussain, both 32, were caged for nine years at Bradford Crown Court after they were convicted of raping the lone 17-year-old.
Their victim, who cannot be identified, was picked up by Ahmad as she tried to get back to Huddersfield after midnight in October 2014.
She had been out drinking with a pal, London’s Appeal Court heard, but became stranded after they had a row while sharing a cab.
Ahmad plied her with food and drink after offering her a lift, said Lord Justice Treacy, before taking her to a secluded spot where he attacked her.
“She said that she didn’t consent to that,” the judge added.
After raping her, Ahmad drove her to a rendezvous with his brother-in-law, Hussain, who in turn raped her before finally driving her home.
Neither man used violence to get her to submit, said the judge, but the teenager was a “lone vulnerable female” out in the small hours who had not consented to sex.
Prosecutors claimed Ahmad was out on the prowl for sex that night, although he insisted that he was driving around on the hunt for a late-night barber to cut his hair before the Eid festival.
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Ahmad, of Kingsbury Place, and Hussain, of Hyde Park Road, challenged the jury’s guilty verdicts with claims that their trial was unfair.
They argued the trial judge should have allowed the jury to hear evidence about a previous sexual encounter involving the teenager.
It was argued that there were clear similarities between this and the alleged rape incident.
However, Lord Justice Treacy said the trial judge was justified in excluding this evidence, which he termed “extremely sparse.”
There were “significant difficulties” in Ahmad’s defence, said the judge, and “his reasons for being out and about in the small hours.”
The credibility of both men ended up being “seriously undermined”, he added.
“We are satisfied that the convictions are safe and we dismiss the appeals against conviction,” the judge concluded.
Lord Justice Treacy, sitting with Mr Justice Dove and Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, also went on to dismiss the pair’s sentence appeals.
The offences were “prolonged” and the victim was “young, vulnerable and alone”, he concluded.
“There is no basis for interfering with these sentences.”
