These are the evil faces of three takeaway workers who horrifically gang-raped a drunk 16-year-old girl in a “grubby room” above a pizza shop.
Restaurant owner Tamin Rahmani, 38, of Northwood Road in Ramsgate, takeaway workers Shershah Muslimyar, 21, of Hovenden Close in Canterbury, Raffiullah Hamidy, 24, of no fixed abode and a boy from Ashford, who we cannot name for legal reasons, have all been jailed for a total of 49 years in prison.
All three takeaway workers and the unnamed youth denied three counts of rape, resulting in a gruelling four-week long trial at Canterbury Crown Court.
The three men were each sentenced to 14 years and the 17-year-old boy was sentenced to seven years – half of which they will serve in custody.
Kent Live attempted to challenge the reporting restrictions that forbid the press from identifying the boy, but the judge ruled that the minor should remain anonymous due to his vulnerability and age.
Walking the streets alone
The jury was told sordid details of a night in Ramsgate in September last year, where a lost girl walking the streets alone had asked for directions.
But rather than helping the victim, the men took her to a “grubby” room above 555 Pizza on Northwood Road and raped her multiple times.
Throughout the trial, prosecutor Simon Taylor told grim details of how “every single orifice had been penetrated by the group of men, while others watched, laughed and joined in themselves”.
Physically restrained
Mr Taylor added that the girl was pushed onto a mattress whilst men physically restrained her and stood by the door “so she knew there was no escape”.
The victim was then escorted out the premises, where she was found “sobbing”, “hysterical” and “pacing up the road crying” by a woman who found her on the street.
In a statement read to the court, the victim said: “I’m not sure how many were in the room, I think there was about four or five of them. They were all like pushing me, like, to each other. One of the men pushed me onto the bed and was just laughing.
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“He pushed me onto a mattress, I think it had a duvet. I think there was one or two by the door and a few in the middle of the room. One was on top of me and one was beside me holding my shoulders. I don’t remember much after that but one of them was having sex with me.”
She said they were all “swapping round” and she told them to stop “but they carried on anyway”.
Tamin Rahmani
Restaurant owner Rahmani, who is married with children and moved to the UK from Afghanistan in 2003, had his DNA found on a duvet cover at the scene of where the girl was raped.
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The disgraced former businessmen told jurors how he had previously made love to his wife on the duvet, and lied about being in bed with her on the night of the attack.
When CCTV images showed him in his car on the night in question, he told police he thought “it was in Afghan time”.
Rafiullah Hamidy
Rafiullah Hamidy, 24, was an employee of Tamin Rahmani’s alongside 20-year-old Shershah Muslimyar at 555 takeaway.
After the attack, Hamidy fled to Italy before he was extradited back to the UK in connection with the rape.
Hamidy initially denied having sex with the girl, but changed his statement when his DNA was found on the victim – trying to claim the sex was consensual.
Like Hamidy, Shershah Muslimyar denied having sex with the girl until his DNA was found on her.
He then changed his statement, and said he lied because he was “scared of his girlfriend finding out” – later claiming her had “consensual” sex with the girl on the street.
Muslimyar’s barrister Glenn Harris says he still maintains his innocence and arrived in the UK after he fled Afghanistan to escape the Taliban.
Unnamed youth
The teenager who took part in the horrific attack, now aged 17, arrived in the UK as a young unaccompanied asylum seeker from Afghanistan in 2015.
The boy told his foster carer he was staying in Canterbury with a friend on the right of the rape, but was later seen escorting the girl from 555 takeaway – along with his DNA found in the room where the young girl was raped.
The 17-year-old is also shown on CCTV holding the teenager as she is taken into the takeaway, and threw her clothes at her at the end of the attack.
‘Opportunity to fulfil their depraved sexual desires’
Sentencing, Judge Heather Norton said: “In her drunken state, the victim thought that you were going to help her, but instead, you took her up to a bedroom, pushed her onto a mattress and repeatedly raped her”.
Senior investigating officer Det Insp Richard Vickery said: “The victim in this case was a vulnerable teenage girl who was taken advantage of and subjected to some of the most horrendous crimes imaginable.
“It was late at night, she was lost and she asked a group of men for directions. Instead they saw an opportunity to fulfil their depraved sexual desires and betrayed the trust she placed in them in the worst possible way.
“Rape is an abhorrent crime and the victim has suffered a great deal of emotional harm from the ordeal she was forced to endure. She has displayed tremendous courage in reliving what happened to her, and I would like to personally thank her for having the strength to help bring her offenders to justice.
“They clearly pose a significant danger to women and children and are fully deserving of the lengthy prison sentences they have received.”
The license of 555 pizza, later re-branded into YSY Pizza, has since been revoked