Serial prostitute rapist from Smethwick appeals against conviction
Birmingham Mail
Monday, March 05, 2012
A SERIAL rapist jailed for raping three prostitutes on the backstreets of Birmingham is demanding that his conviction is overturned – because police warned vice girls about his reign of terror.
Dahir Ibrahim
Dahir Ibrahim, of Smethwick, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for three counts of rape at the city’s crown court in 2006.
The judge recommended that the 26 year-old, originally from Somalia and seeking asylum in Britain at the time, should be deported back to his homeland on his release, which is imminent.
Before he was jailed, West Midlands Police described him as a “truly evil” sexual predator, and issued his picture to prostitutes around Edgbaston’s red light area as part of an appeal for his victims to come forward.
Officers also enlisted the help of charities working with prostitutes and drug addicts to trace women he attacked.
And in an unprecedented move Birmingham City Council went to court to seek an ASBO against him. A 12-month public nuisance injunction was imposed, barring Ibrahim from several streets where prostitutes operated. Now his barrister Danielle Cooper has told the Court of Appeal that Ibrahim’s convictions should be overturned because the evidence of a prostitute used at his trial was unreliable and may have been “contaminated” by the warning put out by police.
“There is clearly a concern that the witness had heard talk and descriptions of the person who was said to be responsible for the rapes,” she said. “This is important because, where there is evidence of collusion and contamination like that, the evidence is undermined.”
Miss Cooper said the judge had failed to give the jury adequate directions on how to treat the prostitute’s evidence which, she argued, was also undermined by her known drug abuse.
Prosecutors maintain Ibrahim’s trial was perfectly fair, and that there was ample evidence on which the jury could find him guilty.
Lord Justice Aikens, sitting with Mr Justice Field and Judge Nicholas Cooke QC, reserved judgement in the matter, which will be given at an unspecified future date. “This is a very serious case which raises very serious issues, not only on the facts but also on the law,” he said.
“We are therefore going to take time to consider our decision and our reasons.”
Ibrahim was 17 when he was first questioned about the rape of a prostitute in Edgbaston in March 2003.
Enith Walker, the victim, lied to police about the incident because she did not think that they would take her complaint seriously as she was a sex worker and drug user.
But Ms Walker, who is now dead, made a confidential statement to a charity about the attack, claiming a “baby-faced” Somali held a knife to her throat and raped her.
Over the next two years Ibrahim waged a campaign of sexual violence against prostitutes in Edgbaston.
He was a user of qat, the herb commonly chewed by many in the Somali community, which is said to have a hallucinogenic effect.
The women he attacked were told that he would cut or kill them if they did not submit.
None of his victims reported the attacks to police until September 2005 when a 43 year-old woman dialled 999 within minutes of being assaulted. Ibrahim was arrested as he tried to flee.
