Teenager is caged for rape attack

The 25-year-old victim thought she was going to die when Farhan Wahid struck after she opened her door because he said he wanted to leave a note for another person living at her address.

Twice she remembered briefly coming to during her ordeal but each time he punched her again, knocking her out.

Afterwards he redressed her with a pair of knickers grabbed from a laundry basket and trousers, which he put on back to front and then bizarrely tried to iron, causing a burn on her thigh. Before he left he stole her phone and iPod.

Wahid, 18, of Rotary Close, Batley Carr, West Yorkshire, was sent to a young offender institution for seven years after he admitted rape, assault causing actual bodily harm and theft. He was ordered to register indefinitely as a sex offender.

Sentencing him at Leeds Crown Court yesterday, Judge James Goss QC said: "You rendered your victim unconscious by strangulation and kept her in a state of unconsciousness or semi-unconsciousness."

She was also bound at some point at her wrists and ankles, and when she came round found he had redressed her.

The judge said Wahid's guilty plea had saved the woman having to relive her ordeal in court but the effect on his victim had been devastating, making her feel insecure and unable to trust other people.

He accepted Wahid had never acted in such a way before but said the offences were serious.

"I consider it likely you behaved in the way you did out of sexual immaturity and obsession with your victim, exacerbated in part by your consumption of cannabis."

Neil Clark, prosecuting, said the attack had happened on December 11, last year after Wahid had developed a fixation for the woman and called at her home when she was alone.

He grabbed her and threw her to the floor when she opened the door. She was screaming and trying to push him away and it was then he put pressure on her neck until she became unconscious.

He dragged her to another room where he removed some of her clothing and raped her, punching her to knock her out again when she came round, causing her nose to bleed in the process.

Mr Clark said afterwards Wahid grabbed a pair of knickers from a laundry basket, which belonged to the woman's mother, and dressed her in them before adding trousers back to front.

Scorch marks on the trousers and blisters on the woman's thigh showed he had used a hot iron on the clothing while she was wearing them.

He also searched her bedroom and stole the phone and iPod. They were later recovered from his home, having been hidden in his bed.

When the woman came round she found she was still loosely bound. She contacted a relative who found her distressed and crying. She was still having difficulty breathing and at one point passed out again.

A doctor who examined the marks left on her neck said sufficient pressure had been applied to cause danger to her life.

Yunus Valli, for Wahid, said he was an immature young man and it had taken courage for him to plead guilty to the offences having come to terms while on remand with what he had done, particularly the effect on his family.

"He now appreciates how wrong is conduct was and he thoroughly regrets his behaviour."