This is the horror moment a sexual predator followed a young woman he found drunk in the street before attempting to rape her in his car. Ghulan Mohammed, 36, was in Leicester city centre when he spotted a woman stumbling along a path after she was separated from friends.
Chilling CCTV shows Mohammed following the woman – who was in her 20s – in his car before jumping out to talk to her. He walked the victim around the back streets for an hour before finally persuading her to get into his car in the early hours of December 18, 2023.
After jumping into the back seat, Mohammed drove the girl to a remote area where he sexually assaulted her and attempted to rape her, reports the Mirror. Footage shows the petrified woman trying to escape by banging on the window of a petrol station and desperately pushing Mohammed away. He then grabbed her wrists and forced her back into the silver Volkswagen Golf.
The courageous victim was finally saved when she sent a live location notification and voice notes to her friends begging for help. As he pulled into a hotel car park, her friends raced to the car where they dragged her to safety.
When the victim was found, she was covered in mud and bruises and Mohammed had no trousers on. He quickly fled the scene and the victim called police who launched an urgent manhunt.
Police discovered the woman, who spoke little English, had attempted to plead with Mohammed to stop abusing her by a translation app on her phone. The device revealed she had repeatedly begged him to: “Give me my clothes back,” and to “take me home.”
Detectives sifted through hours of CCTV to identify Mohammed and he was arrested the next day at his home in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffs. Following a five-week trial, he was found guilty of one count of attempted rape, four counts of sexual touching, one of theft and four of fraud.
On Friday, the accused was caged for seven years and three months at Northampton Crown Court. The court heard Mohammed began following the woman shortly before 9.30pm on December 17 when he spotted her walking on St Nicholas Circle.
CCTV shows him breaking suddenly after driving past the woman, before he turned left into Castle Street and parks. As the victim walked along Southgates and turned in to the opposite end of Castle Street, Mohammed caught up with her and they started talking.
He walked after the woman for nearly an hour and finally persuaded her to get into his car, and he drove her out of the city. For more than two hours he drove her around and parked in several different locations.
At 12.40am the following morning, the Golf was spotted on CCTV pulling onto a petrol station forecourt in Groby Road. Mohammed and the woman get out of the car and the victim can be seen in an angry and distressed state.
Approximately 10 minutes later the pair returned to the car and Mohammed drove in the direction of Leicester Forest East. At around 1am the victim sent a voice note to a friend asking for help along with live location information.
Soon after 1.30am the car parked in a hotel car park on Hinckley Road where it stayed with the headlights off. The victim’s friends arrived at the hotel at 1.50am and discovered her in the back of the car with Mohammed.
Mohammed quickly fled the scene in the car and within hours he used the victim’s bank card to make four transactions totalling £125.14. Detective Constable Sarah Le Boutillier, of Leicestershire Police, said: “Mohammed is a sexual predator who intentionally sought out the victim that night after seeing her alone and in a vulnerable state.
“It is thanks to her friends that she was rescued from the defendant’s car after she was able to share her location data with them. I believe had this not happened further offences would have been committed.
“The swift reporting of the incident meant we were able to launch an investigation very quickly and within less than 28 hours the suspect had been identified and arrested. Despite the evidence against him being undeniable, the defendant chose not to admit what he did and instead caused the victim further trauma by making her relive the events of the night during the trial.”
Maimuna Bappa, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said Mohammed “subjected his victim to a terrifying ordeal”. She added: “The victim had very little recollection of what had happened, other than that she was being attacked and was determined not to give in to [his] sexual advances.
“The picture of these events was clear – that this is an extremely dangerous sexual predator and that the victim has shown extraordinary courage to resist him during the attack and to give what help she can to the investigation and prosecution.”
Don’t miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond. Sign up to our daily newsletter.