🔴 SUTTON LAWN ATTACK: PAKISTANI ASYLUM SEEKER GUILTY OF TWO RAPES IN PARK ATTACK
Court hears how a teenager was attacked twice by two men in a Nottinghamshire park, one now guilty, another still sought, as a reporting ban lifts and sentencing looms.
An asylum seeker has been convicted of two counts of rape following a jury trial at Birmingham Crown Court after an 18-year-old woman was attacked in a Nottinghamshire park.
Sheraz Malik, 28, was found guilty by a unanimous jury of raping the woman on two occasions in Sutton Lawn park in Sutton-in-Ashfield. Jurors returned a not guilty verdict on a third count of rape. Malik had denied the allegations and claimed the sexual activity was consensual.
The court heard the offences occurred after the woman had been drinking in the park and encountered Malik and a group of men she had never met before. Shortly before Malik’s attack, she had been raped by another man from the group, who remains unidentified. Police have confirmed that enquiries to locate the second suspect are continuing.
It can now be reported, following the conclusion of the trial, that Malik is an asylum seeker who was born in Pakistan and had previously lived in Italy, Germany and France before arriving in the UK. A reporting restriction imposed at Nottingham Crown Court in September last year had prevented publication of his immigration status until verdicts were returned.
Prosecution counsel Nicholas Corsellis KC told the jury that the complainant had been drinking with a male friend in the park and was intoxicated when she met Malik and his associates. Her friend later left the area and asked the group to look after her while he went to meet another friend.
The court was told that one of the men led the woman to an isolated part of the park under the pretext of allowing her to go to the toilet, where she was forcibly raped before being brought back to the group. Prosecutors said Malik then decided he wanted to have sex with her and took her to a separate secluded area, where he raped her.
The jury heard that during the second attack Malik grabbed the woman by the neck and hair and struck her. After the incident she sent a message via Snapchat to a friend asking for help and stating that two men from the group had raped her.
Corsellis told the court the complainant had been alone, drunk and vulnerable at the time of the attacks.
Giving evidence in his defence, Malik said he had been playing cricket in the park with other men and smoking cannabis before meeting the woman. He denied striking her and claimed she had expressed enjoyment of the sexual encounter. He maintained throughout the trial that the sex was consensual.
Malik was questioned about leaving the Nottinghamshire area shortly after the incident using a coach ticket booked in a different name. He told the court the ticket had been arranged by a friend and said he was receiving £50 per week from the Home Office.
Following the verdicts, Judge Simon Ash KC adjourned the case for a further hearing on 6 February to fix a sentencing date. The judge ordered a pre-sentence report to assess Malik’s level of dangerousness and remanded him into custody.
Addressing Malik in the dock, Judge Ash said he had been convicted of very serious offences and would be sentenced in due course. Malik had been living at an address in Bath Street, Sutton-in-Ashfield, at the time of the offences.
In a statement issued after the verdicts, Nottinghamshire Police confirmed Malik is a Pakistani national and said he followed the proceedings through a Pashto interpreter. The force said the investigation into the second suspect remains a priority.
Detective Inspector Nicole Milner said officers and prosecutors had worked closely to bring the case to court and acknowledged the contribution of the victim in securing the convictions.
