A sex fiend who raped a grandmother he’d just met at a bus stop has been jailed.
Alex Belay, 26, appeared to be a “nice lad”, and the woman agreed to go back to his flat in the belief that she had missed the last bus home, a court heard. Belay instead snatched the woman’s phone from her as she called her son, and held a knife to her stomach and throat and subjected her to a horrific attack during which she “genuinely believed” she would die. A remorseless Belay then “smirked” after finally bringing the ordeal to an end.
He has now been jailed for 12 years after a jury at Liverpool Crown Court found him guilty of rape. The thug must serve at least two thirds before becoming eligible for release. Judge Katherine Pierpoint had been told the rape survivor feared for her life during the ordeal, which happened at Belay’s flat in Sefton, Merseyside.
Sentencing, Judge Pierpoint said: “She saw no danger in you. She described you as being what she thought was a nice lad. She was a chatty person and you invited her back to your flat. Once she got into the flat, she got the feeling that something wasn’t right. She said she wanted to leave, but you wouldn’t let her. You turned the light off and locked the door, and you took her phone off her. At the time, she was speaking to her son. It is clear from the evidence that he was left distraught, having heard something of his mother’s panic and the phone then being turned off.
“She pleaded with you to let her go. You picked up a large knife and put it to her stomach and then, when she tried to speak, put it to her throat. She was petrified. She genuinely believed you were going to kill her. It was her account that, as you got off her having raped her, you smirked. She left that flat traumatised.
“The evidence against you in this case was, in my judgement, overwhelming. You denied that you had ever met her, ever had any contact with her or that she had ever been in your flat. You have shown no remorse and continue to deny that you ever even met her. Your attack on her has had a devastating effect. She is still suffering greatly. Her mental health has been seriously damaged.
“She has made numerous attempts to take her own life. She is left feeling angry with herself for trusting you. You have, in her words, wrecked her life. She feels that she will never get over what you did to her. I accept that your time growing up in a wartorn country would have been extremely traumatic for you. I take into account your age and that you have no previous convictions.”
Judge Pierpoint also said of the victim: “I want to say that she is a strong woman who should be commended for her bravery in standing up against you.”
Belay is an asylum seeker who was born in Eritrea and came to the UK in 2020 after fleeing civil war in Sudan, the court was told. The young man began remonstrating in his native tongue with his interpreter in the dock before he was led down to the cells by dock officers, who told him “go, go on”. He will be required to sign the sex offenders’ register for life.
The woman had been visiting a friend before leaving to get the bus home at around midnight on. She encountered the defendant at the bus stop but, believing they had missed the last service of the evening, they then began walking away together while chatting.
Olivia Beesley, prosecuting, described how Belay then invited the woman into his flat. She agreed as she “thought she would be safe and wasn’t in danger because he was much younger than her”. But having returned from the toilet, she “felt that something was wrong” and told him that she was going to leave. Belay responded by turning the lights out and pushing her, the jurors were told. When she answered an incoming call from her son, the 26-year-old took her phone from her and locked the front door. He then grabbed a knife and held it to her stomach and pointed it at her throat “every time she began to speak”, reports the Liverpool Echo.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nan-thought-shed-met-nice-32567540