Man convicted of strangulating, raping woman in Birmingham woodland

A man has been convicted of kidnapping and raping a woman in a woodland of Birmingham in broad daylight last summer.

Mustafa Hakim from Quinton is also found guilty of strangulating the woman when she was trying to resist the sexual assault in July last year.

The 30-year-old man approached the woman from behind on Bourne Brook Walkway in Selly Oak, grabbed her and dragged her to a wooded area where committed the sexual crime.

Birmingham Crown Court adjourned his sentencing to April 5.

Prosecutor Michelle Heeley said the woman became aware of someone close to her when she was walking along the path shortly before 8.45 am. She initially thought it could be a jogger and then felt a hand go over her mouth.

The offender grabbed her legs, picked her up and carried her into some bushes. When she screamed, the man put his arm “around her throat to prevent her from breathing” and threatened to kill her if continued to scream.

Heeley said the woman stopped struggling because she was terrified that the rapist would knock her out. He let go of her throat and pinned her down “on her front."

As he pulled down her trousers and attacked her, she managed to call her boyfriend from her watch although she had dropped her phone in her struggle.

Hakim, who realised she was on the phone, cut off the call. “He then stopped the rape and ran away,” the prosecutor said.

He denied the charges but CCTV footage showed him riding a bicycle in the area before the incident and running away afterwards.

The movements of the woman’s phone he stole also helped the investigators nail his lies.

Detective inspector Scott Shaw of West Midlands Police's Public Protection Unit described the attack on the woman as “truly shocking”.

He said the police would take these offences “very seriously” and work hard to keep dangerous people like Hakim off the streets."