Manchester Evening News
January 25, 2014
Sohail Pervez, 23, and friend Hassan Samad, 26, were driving through Ashton-under-Lyne in the early hours when they spotted the schoolgirl walking alone.
Two ‘cowards’ preyed on a 15-year-old girl who was walking alone late at night before taking her to waste ground where she was raped.
Sohail Pervez, 23, and friend Hassan Samad, 26, were driving through Ashton-under-Lyne in the early hours of one day in July 2012 when they spotted the schoolgirl walking alone.
Samad, who was driving the silver VW Golf, turned the car around and persuaded the girl – who was walking to meet friends but her mobile battery had died – to get in.
She was then driven to a patch of wasteground where Pervez raped her.
The court heard Samad got out of the car during the attack but helped his friend by moving one of the seats forward and passing his friend a condom from the boot.
The pair then drove off, leaving the girl stranded alone on the waste ground where she was spotted by a passerby who called police.
The girl has been so traumatised by the attack that she can no longer go out alone.
In a witness impact statement read out in court, the victim said she had not wanted to walk to school alone or go out to meet friends since the attack.
Pervez, 23, of Rose Hill Road, Ashton-under-Lyne, has now been jailed for eight years for rape and five years for assault by penetration, to run concurrently.
His friend Samad, 26, of Kenyon Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, was sentenced to six years for aiding and abetting rape.
Both Samad, a qualified engineer, and Pervez, a student, denied the offences. They were said to be of good character with no previous convictions.
The pair were only caught when a police officer spotted a car matching the description of the one used to pick up the girl several days later.
The car was traced to Samad and Pervez was later identified as the rapist.
Sentencing them, Judge Maurice Greene said: “I don’t accept that you were cruising around looking for vulnerable women but you chanced upon this girl and turned the car around.
“The evidence given was that she said she was going to a friend’s party but didn’t know where it was – if that were true there was no effort to assist her at all.
“It was decided that she would be taken to waste ground.
“You, Pervez, forced yourself on her.
“She told you to get off and clearly did not want to have intercourse.
“You then kicked her out of the car and left her stranded where anything could have happened to her.
“I have heard the effects on her and in effect she had a breakdown.”
Detective Chief Inspector Jamie Daniels said: “These two men preyed upon a young girl who was vulnerable and alone late at night.
“Pervez did not know his victim but intimidated her into getting into the car with him, where he then forced himself upon her before the pair left her stranded in an isolated location with no care whatsoever as to what happened to her
“Neither of these two cowardly men would admit their guilt in this case, causing this young victim to have to relive her traumatic ordeal in court. I would like to commend her for her bravery, which has led to them deservedly being put behind bars today for what they did.”