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.

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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.

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