A 25-year-old Pakistani care worker in the United Kingdom, Fazli Qadeer, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for raping a bedbound woman while working as her carer in Bristol.
Qadeer, from Peshawar, had travelled to Bristol to join his brother and pursue university studies while working as a care worker.
Bristol Crown Court heard that Qadeer took advantage of the absence of the woman’s family to sexually assault her during a care shift.
According to evidence presented before the court, Qadeer climbed onto the woman’s bed, told her that he “loved her” and “wanted to marry her”, before kissing and touching her and subjecting her to a sustained sexual assault, including oral rape.
Qadeer denied the rape allegation during the trial and claimed that the woman had sexually assaulted him. The court, however, convicted him of rape and subsequently sentenced him to 12 years’ imprisonment.
During sentencing, Qadeer’s barrister, Jemima Lovatt, told the court that her client had written an apology letter following his conviction.
Lovatt said Qadeer had described his childhood as having been spent in “difficult circumstances around a lot of violence and a culture of fear”.
She also told the court that Qadeer had disclosed to his family after his conviction that he had himself been raped as a child.
The defence counsel urged the court to consider his background and cultural upbringing, arguing that his interpretation of the victim’s friendliness had been influenced by his cultural background.
But Recorder Sarah Regan said Qadeer had previously been of good character and described the circumstances of the attack as difficult to understand.
The judge said it was “difficult to fathom your motive for this attack other than to consider that you did it just because you could”.
The court also heard character references describing Qadeer’s charitable activities and efforts to improve the lives of others.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the woman said the attack had profoundly affected her life, leaving her with severe nightmares and difficulty sleeping.
She said she had become frightened by noises and lived with the fear that Qadeer could return and kill her.
The woman, whose identity is protected by law, said the incident had also affected her trust in men she had known for many years.
She disclosed that she had been prescribed diazepam to cope with stress and said the attack had “taken away my freedom”.
“We still don’t know if he did it to anyone else before but I know I have stopped it from happening again,” she said.
Following his conviction and sentence, Qadeer was also made subject to a restraining order prohibiting him from contacting the victim.
The UK Home Office is expected to review his immigration status after he completes his prison sentence.
