Small boat migrant jailed for 12 years for raping vulnerable Oxford teenager after youth club night

He was convicted by a unanimous verdict on the 7th of October this year after a seven-day trial.

The 35-year-old, who required a Farsi interpreter during proceedings, had been found guilty of one count of rape and one count of sexual assault by penetration.

Appearing in the dock in a blue jumper, Mofrad walked in before shouting “I don’t rape nobody, it is lie everything about me, I swear to God lie.”

“You can give me a thousand years, it is no problem. I’m innocent. I swear to god my trousers no coming down.”

Staring towards reporters, he added: “You can type all you like, everything is lie about me.”

Judge Maria Lamb threatened to send him down if he continued to interrupt proceedings.

He then started crying in the dock, saying “my trousers no coming down.”

“It is lie everything she say. Give me 1000 year prison no problem.”

Mofrad wiped his eyes after being warned again by the judge.

Summarising the case before sentencing, prosecutor Patrick Upward KC said that “violence played a significant” part in the attack on Valentine’s day last year.

The victim was assaulted before being forced to the ground by Mofrad, he said. Mofrad had lured the vulnerable girl victim to a bench after she left a nightclub for under-18s.

She was then raped in an alleway and the court heard that he said he wanted her as his sex slave.

Mr Upward KC said that Mofrad was waiting for someone to attack on Valentine’s evening.

The court heard that he pushed the girl onto the ground and raped her.

The prosecution said that the defendant’s phone had a number of photographs of young women.

Mofrad came to the UK in an illegal small boat crossing across the Channel. He was previously in Germany.

The court heard about Mofrad’s previous convictions in Germany. He was fined for assault in 2014. In 2015, he was convicted of three counts of assault. In 2017, he was given another conviction of assault and imprisoned for six months. There was a further custodial sentence for assault in 2019, closing the 11 assault offences he was convicted of in Germany in six years.

After arriving in Britain illegally, he was convicted of theft and given a community order.

In her mitigation, barrister Tamasin Graham urged the judge against considering that the assault amounted to a prolonged detention in a sustained incident. She also urged HHJ Lamb against attributing significant weight to the convictions in Germany.

Ms Graham said that Mofrad was forced to flee Iran because he turned his back on Islam. His barrister said that Mofrad “now faces a death penalty if he is found in Iran,” and that he was a genuine political refugee.

It was said that Mofrad was an architect in Iran and then retrained as an optician in Germany.

Ms Graham argued that a report said that he struggled with some cultural behaviours, norms and clues.

But Mrs Justice Lamb pointed out in the report that it was said that Mofrad had “sought to offer an impression of unworldliness and cultural naivety in interview,” but that this had “failed to convince.”

The interviewer wrote: “The impression I am offered is that Mofrad knew exactly what he was doing on the day in question.”

HHJ Lamb continued: “I’m not sure, unless I’ve missed it, that your interpretation on what is said about cultural differences is quite accurate.”

Mofrad continued to wipe his eyes as proceedings continued, occasionally speaking with his Farsi interpreter.

Mofrad, who was staying in the Holiday Inn Express in Oxford during the time of the attack, was stabbed 15 times in January by another migrant, Syed Barzegar.

In August, Barzegar was jailed for three years for the violent incident.

HHJ Lamb said that Mofrad was prepared to use violence and to exploit the vulnerability of a girl years younger than him.

The judge added that the victim had suffered severe psychological harm.

She referred to the girl’s victim personal statement, “which deals very movingly with the impact and consequences that your behaviour towards her has had.”

Mrs Justice Lamb said that she had formed her own independent view about him.

The judge added that she determined that Mofrad represented a significant risk of committing further offences and serious harm.

“There is no doubt in my mind from the rest of your behaviour that night that sexual interaction with females was very much the focus of your activities. The location that you chose to position ourselves that night was not a matter of chance.

She added: “You showed yourself prepared to force yourself on a complete stranger, someone who was vulnerable by reason of her youth and her level of intoxication.”

Mofrad was emotionless as he was sentenced to 12 years and six months, of which 9 years and six months will be spent in custody.

As he left the dock he shouted “everybody is liar, liar, liar.”