A failed asylum seeker who raped a young woman after marching her out of a York nightclub was notorious for targeting lone women there, a court heard.
Eid Anwar Fathi Najjar, 20, arrived in the UK illegally on a small boat three years ago and now faces a lengthy prison sentence after being branded ‘a sexual predator’.
His victim – described by witnesses as ‘completely out of it’ – had become separated from her friends during a pub crawl in the popular tourist city in the early hours of July 6.
Najjar stopped the ‘intoxicated’ victim from trying to escape his clutches after singling her out at the Vudu Lounge in York’s Swinegate by holding her in a ‘tight grip’, a court heard.
When the woman tried to get a taxi, Najjar frogmarched her in the other direction.
She was later seen walking around the city centre partially naked after being raped by Najjar, apparently in an alleyway.
Najjar, understood to be originally from Egypt, was traced after CCTV from the nightclub was examined.
He was due to stand trial for rape next week, but at a hearing yesterday he changed his plea to guilty and also admitted sexually assaulting the woman.
At a short hearing where he was assisted by an Egyptian Arabic interpreter he was remanded in custody ahead of his sentencing in December.
Details can now be reported from a preliminary hearing at York Magistrates’ Court on when Chimwemwe Chabwera outlined the case for the prosecution.
She said the victim – who cannot be named for legal reasons – had been out drinking in city centre bars with friends and ‘recalls little of what happened before and after the incident’.
At some point on the pub crawl, she parted company with her friends and ended up in the Vudu Lounge, ‘but she doesn’t remember what happened after that’.
‘The next thing she remembers is being outside her front door with an unknown male,’ said Ms Chabwera.
‘She wasn’t wearing any trousers or knickers (and) her bag was missing. She was unable to remember the code for her (door) key safe.
‘She remembers being in the Shambles Marketplace with the same male.
‘She got her bag and trousers back but not her knickers. Her trousers were dirty but not damaged.’
Later, two brothers were walking through Shambles Market when they spotted a partially naked woman in the street looking ‘visibly distressed and confused’.
‘She didn’t have a mobile or handbag and couldn’t answer questions,’ said Ms Chabwera.
‘She seemed intoxicated. They suggested taking her back to Shambles Market to try and find her handbag.
‘They found this with her phone in an alleyway.’
As they were walking back to her home, they saw a passing police van and flagged it down.
Ms Chabwera said the woman told officers she wasn’t sure what had happened, but she ‘felt like she had had a sexual encounter’.
‘This frightened her because she had no recollection of it,’ added the prosecutor.
‘She is clear that she would not have consented to having sex with someone she had just met on a night out and having sex in a public location.
‘She had bruising to her right arm and thigh.’
Police carried out CCTV enquiries which led them to the Vudu Lounge where footage showed her ‘swaying, stumbling and bumping into people’.
Najjar is understood to have been at the venue for only a matter of minutes when he singled her out.
Within ten minutes he was seen ‘holding her in a tight grip and leading her out’ as she tried to push him away, the court heard.
‘A member of security staff said he told Najjar to leave her alone as she was intoxicated and vulnerable,’ Ms Chabwera said.
The doorman was then distracted by something else as Najjar led the woman out of the bar.
Najjar was arrested at his home in the city where he initially gave a false name before confirming his true identity after police carried out checks.
He initially falsely claimed to have had consensual sex with the woman, lying that she was sober and that she herself took off her clothes and removed his clothing.
After being shown the CCTV footage which contradicted his account of events he answered no comment.
Ms Chabwera said it was the prosecution’s case that Najjar was a ‘sexual predator’ who targeted a vulnerable, lone woman.
She said that doormen at Vudu Lounge said Najjar was notorious for targeting lone women in the bar and they had seen him doing this on previous occasions.
‘Najjar entered the country illegally in a small boat in 2022,’ she added.
‘He is a failed asylum seeker; he has no right to remain.’
Graham Parkin, representing Najjar at the July hearing, said his client’s asylum claim had been closed.
He added, however, that when he spoke to Immigration Services that same week, he was told there was no intention at that stage of seeking to remove Najjar from the UK.
At yesterday’s hearing Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, adjourned sentence to December for a probation report but told Najjar: ‘A custodial sentence in this case is inevitable. It’s just a question of how long.’
Mohammed Abrahim Abuzet, 25, of Bradford, was also arrested and charged with rape over the incident but denied the allegation which prosecutors have now withdrawn.
The Home Office was approached for comment.
