A rapist who “just did not care” that a 16-year-old girl did not want to have sex with him has been detained for seven years. Shahram Rasouli, a 19-year-old asylum seeker from Iran, carried out the attack on the girl in August last year after she and a friend went to his Salvation Army-run accommodation in Denmark Hill, south London.
He had gone to the shops for alcohol before the attack, Inner London Crown Court heard during his trial, and gave the girls Absolut vodka drinks as well as BuzzBallz cocktails. The victim, who was a virgin, said Rasouli took off her clothes and subjected her to a “painful” rape despite her insistence that she did not want to have sex. She told a jury, giving tearful evidence at trial: “I can’t forget what happened. My whole life has fallen apart.”
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Rasouli, who came to the UK in 2023, denied the charge but was convicted by a jury of rape and was sentenced on Thursday to seven years in a young offender institution.
Judge Silas Reid said: “You decided you were going to have sex with the victim. She didn’t want to and even with the difficulties in language she made it clear to you she didn’t want to. You ignored that.
“Ultimately you committed this offence because you wanted to have sexual intercourse with someone and you just did not care that they wanted nothing to do with you in that way.”
The judge referred to parts of the victim’s and her mother’s impact statements, saying they reveal the teenager “lives in constant fear of being sexually assaulted again” which has made it “extremely difficult for her even to leave the house”.
“She has frequent flashbacks and nightmares,” judge Reid continued. “Part of that is that on occasions at random points in the day she feels as though she can physically feel hands on her.
“Her mother sets out the impact not just on your victim but on the family as a whole and she said on many nights she has to be awake supporting her daughter who is unable to sleep due to the panic and distress she suffers, particularly at night.”
The victim’s mother also said her daughter has withdrawn from life, the court heard.
The jury heard during the trial that the girl travelled in to London on the day of the attack to stay with her friend, whose boyfriend suggested they visit the Salvation Army accommodation to see some of his friends.
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The girl recalled struggling to hold a conversation with Rasouli due to his “limited” grasp of English, and they went to the shops together to buy alcohol.
The girls drank four or five vodkas each and the BuzzBallz, jurors heard.
Prosecutor Genevieve Reed told the trial: “She was taken advantage of while drunk. (Rasouli) had sex with her despite her making it clear that she didn’t want to. It is significant, say the prosecution, that not only was she a virgin but she wasn’t into boys, she liked girls.”
The prosecutor also said the sexual act which he performed without a condom was "painful for her, it lasted for around two minutes.”
The court heard the girls eventually left the accommodation and the police were called the following day.
On Thursday, Nathalie Carter, defending, said her client lacks maturity, even for his young age, and has had no education.
“In over 20 years of doing this job I think he is the most unsophisticated defendant I have had,” she told the court.
Rasouli’s friend Arwin Khosrawi, 19, was also accused of raping the same girl that day but he was cleared by the jury at trial.
