A PUB customer is on trial accused of raping a teenager in his car after taking her from a Middlesbrough nightspot.
Ramin Rahamti is accused of getting the 19-year-old into his car and sexually attacking her after making advances to her.
Gives sob story
He said she was “dancing” to music in the car, they became “more flirty”, moved their seats back and engaged in sexual activity.
He said the woman said she wanted him to have sex with her, and helped remove his clothing.
He was uncertain about whether he had full sex with the woman during the short encounter, then he said she gave him a kiss and they drove off.
He said she asked to swap telephone numbers when they returned to the pub, he said goodbye and left alone.
Rahamti, who has no previous convictions said he was shocked when he heard two days later he was wanted by CID. He went to police straight away, not knowing what he was wanted for.
Afghanistan-born UK citizen Rahamti, of Eastbourne Road, Middlesbrough, denies rape and sexual assault.
He said he denied having sex with the woman to police because he was worried about his family, fiancée and community finding out.
He became tearful as he told how his brother had stopped speaking to him over the allegations.
The woman broke down sobbing in the witness box at Teesside Crown Court as she denied consenting to sexual activity with the stranger.
Rahamti, 24, of Eastbourne Road, Middlesbrough, denies raping and sexually assaulting the woman.
Opening the case, prosecutor Rupert Doswell said Rahamti and the woman met and talked in a queue to get into the Crown pub.
He told a jury that Rahamti persistently tried to kiss and embrace her in the early hours of June 2 last year.
He took the “apprehensive” young woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in his car to a shop to buy cigarettes.
Then he reclined her passenger seat, moved over, sexually assaulted and raped her, it was alleged yesterday.
Mr Doswell said: “All the time she was screaming for him to get off her. He ignored her protests.”
He said Rahamti drove her back to the pub saying: “Don’t say anything to anyone about what just happened.”
The woman returned to her friend upset and crying.
The friend then called the police.
In police interviews, Rahamti first said they only kissed and cuddled, then admitted that things went further and they touched each other.
He denied having sex with her. DNA, which matched his, supported the view that sex took place.
The woman became emotional under cross-examination when it was suggested she returned Rahamti’s kisses and climbed over to his seat.
She said: “I didn’t do that, no.”
Crying, she added: “You’re twisting it. It’s all wrong.”
Dirty Defence barrister David Lamb said: “You wanted this to happen to you. You were acting in a way that you now feel thoroughly ashamed about because you’d been drinking.”
The woman answered: “No. I didn’t want it to happen at all.
Mr Lamb suggested the woman was embarrassed and regretted having a one-night stand with a stranger in his car minutes after meeting him.
“Just because I’d been drinking doesn’t mean to say I wanted that.”
The woman said: “No, I didn’t have a one-night stand.
“I didn’t give him consent that I wanted to have sex with him or anything like that.”
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Rahamti, of Eastbourne Road, Middlesbrough, met the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in the queue into the Crown pub.
He talked and tried to hug and kiss her on Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough in the early hours of June 2 last year.
Once inside the pub, Rahamti took her out to his car to buy cigarettes from a shop then parked in Granville Road.
There he sexually assaulted her and raped her, ignoring her screams to “get off me”.
He said to her “Don’t say anything to anyone about what happened” as they returned to the Crown. She told an acquaintance who said she had never seen anyone so upset.
Prosecutor Joseph Spencer told of the effects of the sex attack on the complainant. He said: “For weeks after this incident she was constantly crying. She couldn’t go out. Even going to the shops would freak her out.
“She constantly looked over her shoulder, looking to see if she was being followed.
“Now she’s a bit better but she’s nothing like the person she used to be. She used to be outgoing and bubbly and used to be open with friends, but now doesn’t really talk about much.
“It has affected her relationships with her friends and with her boyfriend and affected her ability to obtain work.”
David Lamb, defending, said Rahamti still “vehemently” denied his guilt but the sex attack was “a one-off, never-to-be-repeated activity”.
He said Rahamti might find his first prison sentence more difficult than someone who had been inside before, or a white Englishman.
https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/local-news/five-years-man-who-raped-3701879