A passing driver saved a woman who had been kidnapped by a convicted rapist and dragged into some bushes to be sexually assaulted.
The motorist beeped his horn after spotting Omar Alam, 50, pulling his victim from a bus stop into nearby shrubbery on July 25, 2019.
She was saved from any assault after the stranger distracted Alam by shouting out ‘Get off her’, but is now struggling to live with the effects of the attack.
It later came out that Alan had already served time for raping a different woman. He was dubbed ‘every woman’s living nightmare’ at Manchester Crown Court.
The victim, an NHS worker at the time, was waiting at a bus stop outside St Cuthbert’s Church in Withington, Manchester, at around 4.30pm after work.
She noticed Alam staring at her and this made her ‘nervous and uneasy’ so she looked away.
Suddenly she felt an arm come around her shoulder and her neck. Alam pulled her with such force that she could not breathe properly, making it difficult for her to fight back but she managed to scream: ‘Help’.
He told the woman: ‘It’s okay, you’re coming with me’. The predator then pushed a sharp object into her right side, leaving a scratch on her lower back.
The woman threw her purse onto the ground, hoping he would let her go to take it but he said again: ‘Shut up, you’re coming with me’.
Within a few minutes, a car passed and the driver beeped his horn and told Alam to get off the woman – distracting Alam and saving the victim.
The woman has since resigned from her 11-year NHS job, after taking sick leave because of the effect of the attack.
‘She felt fear and anxiety, she became anxious and felt like she’d let
others down,’ Prosecutor Matthew Curtis said.
Alam was already on the Sex Offenders’ Register at the time of the kidnapping – after he raped someone in February 2005. He was behind bars for six of a 15-year-sentence.
Now, Olam has been found guilty of kidnap and kidnap with intent to commit a sexual offence.
He denied these charges but admitted possession with intent to supply Class A
drugs and failing to notify of a change in circumstances whilst he was
still subject to the Sex Offenders’ Register.
Defence barrister Kay Driver, said: ‘I am not seeking to minimise the seriousness of the offence, clearly this was a very frightening offence which has had a long lasting
effect on the complainant.
‘But I would say on his behalf that the length of the detention was brief. There was some planning but it was not sophisticated.’
Speaking directly to Alam, Judge Alan Conrad QC said: ‘ You present a continuing risk to the public, in particular to women, of sexual and physical violence. You are, in short, every woman’s living nightmare.’
Alam will spend at least six years and 25 days behind bars before he is considered for parole.
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