Daily Mail
July 28, 2013
The victim of a rape was forced her to watch harrowing CCTV footage of the attack in front of a jury.
The woman was made to relive her terrifying ordeal at the hands of Mohammed Azim, 31,at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
Footage showed the moment Azim smashed her over the head with a bottle at a bus stop in in Oldbury, West Midlands, before dragging her into a nearby factory by her hair.
She was then subjected to a 25-minute rape ordeal, which was all captured on the firm’s CCTV security cameras.
Azim, who was drunk and high on cocaine at the time of the attack in November last year, denied three charges of oral rape.
His not guilty plea meant his victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was forced to watch back the video in court during Azim’s trial so she could be properly cross-examined.
Azim was found guilty of all charges on May 28 and was jailed for a minimum of 16 years at Stafford Crown Court on Friday.
After the case outraged anti-rape charities condemned the ‘appalling’ decision by legal teams to put the victim through the torture of viewing the footage.
Yvonne Traynor, Chief Executive of Rape Crisis, said: ‘The Criminal Justice system have vowed to consider the feelings of victims of this heinous crime but this lack of consideration shows a contempt for the guideline and utter contempt for the feelings of the survivor.