Rahim Ghasemi

A rapist faces automatic deportation after he “humiliated and degraded” a woman before raping her at the side of a busy Essex road. Iranian national Rahim Ghasemi seriously sexually assaulted the 71-year-old lady after offering to drive her to Basildon from Chelmsford.

The now 40-year-old was flanked by security officers in the secure dock at Basildon Crown Court on Monday (August 3). He was told the severity of his crimes means he faces being removed from the UK after serving time in prison.

His Honour Judge Collery KC said: “I don’t know why aged 39 you chose to do this. It was a dreadful thing to do. It has had significant and pretty dire consequences for this woman and you know you should be pretty ashamed of yourself.”

The court heard the woman, who has lifelong anonymity, was in Chelmsford at around 11pm in February last year when she saw Ghasemi in a kebab shop in the city. The pair spoke, he invited her inside and he offered her food which he cooked and she ate.

Ghasemi then offered the woman a lift back to Basildon, where he also lived. She accepted the offer, but he asked her to wait at a bus stop around 20-30 metres from the takeaway. The court heard this was because he “did not want to be seen [with the woman] by those in the other shops”.

Whilst on the A130 driving towards Basildon, Ghasemi placed the woman’s hand on his penis. She objected to this and removed her hand. Ghasemi then pulled into a lay-by “in a rural area, in the middle of nowhere” and told the woman to get into the back of his car. He then used a torch in a “humiliating and degrading” aspect of the crimes before raping the woman.

Ghasemi, who the court heard had visited escort and porn websites earlier in the day, then drove the woman to a service station in Pitsea where he said he would get petrol and told her she needed to get out the car. But he instead drove away and left her stranded.

The woman was “fortunate” that there was a bus stopped nearby which she took to Basildon before calling 999 to report the rape. Ghasemi was said to have got to his home address by around 11.50pm where he was said to watch online porn until around 2.10am.

He was arrested later that day. Ghasemi was convicted of rape and causing a person to engage in sexual activity after a trial earlier this year. The court heard that he denied the offences on the basis that she had “sold sex for £50”.

Reading from a victim impact statement, Mr Richard Potts, prosecutor, said the survivor, now aged 73, “wakes up screaming” because of ongoing fears.

He read: “I go to London more often now as I feel safer there than Basildon. In Basildon I feel like I’m looking over my shoulder. In London I can walk around more freely whereas in Basildon I feel that someone might be following me. I’m embarrassed and my mind wanders off.

"My friends have noticed changes and a difference with me. I used to be outgoing and bubbly.”