20/01/2010

Man Jailed For 1990 Rape

A man has been jailed for raping a teenage girl on a Halloween nearly 20 years ago.

James Asuma, 56, from Leeds pleaded guilty to rape at an earlier hearing, and was yesterday sentenced to three years and nine months in prison at Minshull Street Crown Court.

Asuma raped his victim, who was just 18-years-old and studying in Manchester at the time, on 31 October 1990.

The pair had met in a pub in Fallowfield earlier that evening and drove her to his bedsit in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, in his white car.

While in his room, Asuma raped the teenage girl and repeatedly told her to 'shut up' as she was crying.

Afterwards, he drove her back to Fallowfield and threatened to hurt her if she ever mentioned what happened to anyone.

Although the victim went to the Sexual Assault Centre at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester shortly after she was raped, she was too traumatised to tell police.

In March 2007, she reported it to the Metropolitan Police where she was living, and officers from the Stockport Rape Investigation Team launched an investigation.

The description the victim gave was sent out to a number of police officers that worked in Cheadle Hulme in the 1990s.

An officer came forward and provided the details of Asuma, as he remembered being in Asuma's bedsit during another inquiry and that he had a white car, and the details matched the descriptions given by the victim.

Asuma was then arrested and when the victim was presented with a picture of how he looked at the time of the rape, he was positively identified.

He has previously been convicted of a rape in 1995, for which he was sentenced to five years and six months in jail.

Detective Constable Kat Moriarty, from the Stockport Rape Investigation Team, said: "I hope this case sends out a powerful message to rapists and sex offenders that no matter when they commit these awful crimes, and no matter how much time elapses, we will never stop pursuing them until they are behind bars.

"The victim was just 18 when she was raped and spent years traumatised and too afraid to come forward.

"However, she found the courage to do so and because she did, Asuma is now behind bars where he cannot hurt anyone else."

(PR/GK)

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