Delivery driver who raped vulnerable woman jailed
A delivery driver who raped a defenseless woman in a car park after leaving hospital has been jailed.
The victim was said to have gone to Worthing Hospital “drunk, confused and unsteady on his feet” before Suleman Mukaish grabbed him, forced him onto the bonnet of a car and attacked him on March 11, Hove Crown Court heard.
The 27-year-old was arrested two days later at Gatwick Airport with a one-way ticket to Pakistan.
Mukaish, from Worthing, West Sussex, admitted rape at an earlier hearing and was sentenced to eight years and three months in prison on Tuesday.
He will spend another three years on the extended license.
‘At his most vulnerable moment’
The court was told the woman tried to grab onto the wall to stop him before the attack.
A short time later, she was found by a citizen and said that she had been raped.
Police were called and the woman was able to identify the car where her hand and fingerprints were found.
Sentencing Mukaish, Judge Christine Henson KC said the woman “was at her most vulnerable when, as a complete stranger, he raped her over the bonnet of the car in the car park adjacent to the hospital she had just left”.
He added that the psychological impact on the woman was “enormous” and she was unable to return to hospital due to flashbacks.
The court heard Mukaish was in the UK on a student visa with postgraduate leave until 2028. He studied computer science and earned a master’s degree.
His defense said he claimed he saw the woman in trouble and stopped to help her.
The defense lawyer said Mukaish claimed the woman asked him for money and he offered it “essentially with an agreement that he could do whatever he wanted”.
The lawyer said Mukaish accepted that the woman did not have the capacity to consent.
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