17 years for vile rapist who kept woman prisoner for months

Gambling addict Abdul Hanif, 30, treated the petrified 26-year-old woman like an animal, forcing her to cook and clean for him while repeatedly violating her over nearly half a year.

A jury took just 90 minutes to unanimously find Hanif guilty before he was sentenced to nearly two decades behind bars at Bradford Crown Court this morning.

The court heard the victim has had to seek help with counselling after suffering from depression, flashbacks and suicidal thoughts as a result of the treatment she suffered at the hands of Hanif.

In a victim impact statement read out to the court, she said: “I feel as if my life is totally ruined because of what Abdul Hanif did to me.

“Everything in my life has now changed. I can’t smile or go anywhere like I could before.”

During a week-long trial, the court heard how in one brutal incident, Hanif throttled the petrified Muslim woman with a mobile phone charger cable he tore from the wall.

The vulnerable student, who was a virgin before violent Hanif raped her, had been studying accountancy in London, on a student visa from Bangladesh.

She first met Hanif in February when she was working in a sandwich shop in London and “began to groom her”, the judge said.

Hanif took her number and she was lured to Bradford by Hanif, who pretended he was taking her to a “nice new home”.

The court heard he had been following her around and offered to help when she was made homeless.

Initially they slept in his car before Hanif kept her at friends’ homes and then rented a flat where he kept her prisoner while he worked at a branch of McDonalds.

During Hanif’s trial, the woman told the court how he took her phone and bank card and forced her to have sex every day.

She was made to cook his meals and he flew into a rage when he was unhappy with what she served him.

The woman said Hanif wanted to loan her out to other men for money to pay off his gambling debts, when she refused, he tore the phone charger from the socket and strangled her, leaving marks on her throat.

She was freed when police officers went to the flat in Thorpe Edge, on June 27 last year and battered down the door.

Stephen Naylor, a former friend of Hanif, said she managed to ring him, saying she was unwell and accusing Hanif of domestic violence.

“She said he was treating her like an animal,” Mr Naylor said.

He described Hanif as charismatic but said there was a darker side.

“Hanif is a very frightening man and he trusts no-one,” Mr Naylor said.

Hanif, of Bradford, was convicted of three sample offences of rape and one of causing actual bodily harm on Monday.

Today the court heard the victim’s family have disowned her because of the “cultural differences between rape in this country and rape in Bangladesh.”

Hanif showed no remorse or emotion as he was sentenced to 17 years for each count of rape, to run concurrently, and 18 months in jail for causing actual bodily harm - also to run concurrently - at Bradford Crown Court.

Jailing him, Judge Peter Benson said: “Your victim was a young woman who came to London where she had no family and a limited number of friends and she struggled to find her feet.

“You seized this opportunity and lied to her and pretended you had found her a home owned by a friend.

“Instead of that you brought her against her will to Bradford and when she realised you were leaving London you frightened her and told her you would abandon her.

“This was a young lady who was virtually alone in a big foreign country. You wickedly exploited that vulnerability.

“You forced her into having sex against her will and when she refused you struck her and threatened her.

“You used her as a sexual resource and you controlled her and isolated her by restricting the use of her phone and locking her in.

“You took her bank card so you had control of her finances such as they were and you repeatedly raped her on an almost daily basis using no contraception.

“You treated her like a slave and went off to work, taking the only key.

“She was a prisoner and had no life at all as you made her cook and clean for you.

“You humiliated her by rejecting the food that she cooked and all the while you satisfied your sexual appetite.

“Eventually when you had gambled away any money that you had, you offered her to a friend for sexual purposes but you then threatened to turn her into a prostitute for funds to feed your gambling addiction.

“Your threats to turn her into a prostitute finally caused her to find the courage to escape.”

Hanif was also ordered to sign the sex offences register for life.

Detective Constable Brett Carter, of Protective Services at West Yorkshire Police, said: “Hanif befriended his victim when she was vulnerable, but then went on to repeatedly rape and assault her.

“This must have been a harrowing ordeal for her and we would like to thank her for the courage she has shown in coming forward and reporting Hanif’s crimes.

“We hope the sentence which has been passed down on him today will be of some comfort to her and will help to give her some closure.

“We also hope it will encourage other victims of sexual abuse to speak to our specially-trained officers, who will investigate all reports, no matter how historic, sensitively and thoroughly with the aim of securing a conviction against offenders.”