Sex offender jailed for raping vulnerable prostitute

Despicable Faizan Ali, 24, pounced on the 29-year-old sex worker - who cannot be named for legal reasons - at Edinburgh’s Leith Links in November 2014.

The High Court in the city heard how the fiend was on the Sex Offenders Register at the time he attacked her.

A jury had heard evidence from the woman who wept in court as she relived her ordeal. She told the court how Ali’s actions had left her feeling “violated and scared.”

The High Court in Edinburgh heard Faizan Ali was on the Sex Offenders Register. Picture: Bill Henry

On Tuesday, judge Lord Burns also ordered Ali to be supervised by the authorities for three years following his release from jail.

He told the pervert, who has a history of mental illness, that jail was the only option available to him.

He added: “It is clear from the evidence that you took a calculated action in attacking this woman. You attacked her because she was vulnerable and because she was a prostitute.

“It is clear that the public need to be protected from you. You are assessed as being at a high risk of reoffending.

“I hope you will be given counselling and treatment which will help control your desires.”

Ali, who previously lived with his mum at an address in Edinburgh, was convicted of rape following a trial last month. Sentence had been deferred for the court to obtain reports about his character.

At earlier proceedings, Ali’s terrified victim told the jury how she was attacked in the early hours of November 13 last year.

The court heard the woman say Ali held a knife to her body and demanded she give him cash.

When she failed to give him money, the mother of one told the court that he forced her to perform a sex act before raping her. She told the court that he forced her to perform another sex act on him.

The alleged victim told the court that her alleged ordeal seemed to last “like a lifetime.”

She added: “I felt violated and scared.

“I told him I had a daughter. I was crying through the whole thing begging him to stop.But he wouldn’t.

“It was horrible. I was scared.

“He said he had a £100 note. He wanted business. I asked him to show me it but he brought out a knife.

“He brought out a knife and held it to my ribs to begin with - that’s when he asked me to get my money out. I didn’t have any money and I told him that but he wouldn’t take it for an answer.

“He stuck the knife into my ribs.”

When prosecution lawyer Shirley McKenna asked the woman how she felt, she replied: “Scared. He kept on saying ‘get your money out, get your dough out’.

“He kept on using the word ‘dough’. He said he knew I was a working girl and that I had money on me.

“I genuinely didn’t have any money on me. It was a quiet night.”

The woman told the court that Ali forced her to perform a sex act on him. She also alleged that he searched her personal possessions and found the woman’s post office bank card in her belongings.

She added: “I asked him not to hurt me. I begged him. I told him I had no money.”

The woman told the court that he raped her during the incident - she also said he forced her to perform another sex act on him.

The woman told the court that she told Ali that she had money in her Post Office account in a bid to stop him abusing her.

She added: “He told me that he would stab the life out of me if I didn’t get the money out of my account.

“I was trying to do something to rid of him.”

The woman then told the court that she saw two men walking through the park and approached him. She managed to get free from Ali who was attacking her.

The woman told the court that she told the two men about what had happened to her.

She said: “I remember saying he raped me, he attacked me; that he had a knife.”

On Tuesday, defence solicitor advocate Brian Gilfedder told the judge that his client was taking medication to control “psychosis”.

He also revealed that Ali had spent time at the State Hospital in Carstairs but was transferred to a mental health facility in Edinburgh.

Mr Gilfedder added: “He is stable now.”