Mohammed Basharat.
It’s always unfortunate when someone with such an honest-looking face turns out to be the exact opposite of what you thought he would be.
A delivery driver picked up a runaway teenager from a city street, plied her cannabis and then raped her at his home, a court was told.
The 15-year-old felt “trapped and powerless” after being driven around for several hours before being smuggled into Mohammed Basharat’s address, it was alleged.
Basharat, 39, of Twycross Grove, Hodge Hill, has denied rape and arranging the travel of another person with a view to exploitation.
Glyn Samuel, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court, said on August 16 2017 the victim had an argument with her family about her use of Instagram. She was punished by having her phone taken from her and was sent to her room.
But when later called down for dinner, her family discovered she had run away after climbing out of a bathroom window, Mr Samuel said.
He added: “The family went out looking for her. They did not know where she was and reported her missing that evening at about 9.30pm.
“After she left the family home she was walking the streets of Birmingham and had no coat.”
Mr Samuel said she was later spotted walking along a road in Hodge Hill by the defendant, who worked for TNT and was driving his works van.
Basharat beeped his horn and offered her a lift which she accepted and he told her to get in the back of the van “where she would not be seen,” said Mr Samuel.
He said the victim told him she had run away and the defendant then asked her whether she had ever had sex.
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He eventually returned to his home where he insisted the teenager wear his jacket with the hood up because he wanted to avoid any neighbours seeing he was taking a young girl into the property, the jury was told.
Mr Samuel said the pair watched TV and Basharat smoked some more cannabis before the victim became sleepy.
The defendant told her she could sleep upstairs and she lay on a bed but he then woke her and joined her on the bed, it was alleged
“She felt weak and scared. She realised she had got herself in a position she could not get out of, ” Mr Samuel said.
The prosecutor said Basharat then told her to take her underwear off and raped her, while holding her arms above her head.
He said the attack happened at a time when the defendant’s family were out of the country, adding that Basharat had later dropped the teenager off at a shopping centre.
She was found walking the streets by her grandparents and the defendant was later arrested while driving his van on the Cannock Road.