A jury has made legal history by convicting a man of rape using evidence recorded by the victim before she died.
Ceri Linden, 20, killed herself five days after being raped by Masood Mansouri, but a video recording of the interview in which she described the assault to police was played to the jury at Chester crown court.
The jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict, after more than four hours’ deliberation. Mansouri, 33, who had denied all charges, was convicted on three counts of kidnap, sexual assault and rape and was jailed for 13 years – six for kidnap, 10 for sexual assault and 13 for rape, all to run concurrently.
This is the first time in England and Wales that a rape case has been successfully prosecuted where the evidence of the victim went unchallenged by cross-examination.
The court heard how Mansouri, 33, a car-wash owner, had been watching hardcore pornography in the early hours of Sunday 10 August last year before he picked up Linden in his car soon after midnight.
She had been to a party in students’ halls of residence belonging to the University of Chester and was trying to hail a taxi so she could join friends at a city centre nightclub.
Mansouri, an Iranian who has lived in Britain for 10 years, pulled to the kerb and she climbed in, thinking he was a taxi driver, said prosecutor Nicholas Williams.
Mansouri told her he was going into the city centre but as she realised he was driving into a residential area, she sent three text messages to a friend expressing increasing concern. The first, at 12.28am, said she had been kidnapped, the second that she was not joking. Seven seconds later she texted: “Literally scared.”
In her police interview, Linden told DC Alan Horner, of Cheshire police: “It was against my will to go to his house. I thought he was a taxi driver taking me to where I wanted to go.”
On arrival at Mansouri’s house, after “trying to think of ways to get out of the situation”, the woman claimed he asked her to go upstairs. She “froze with fear” and felt she had to go along with the situation.
After the assault, she ran out of the house and hid behind a bush where she was discovered by neighbours.
In her 76-minute recorded interview, she told police: “I felt worthless and helpless and that I needed to tell someone. I don’t feel that this is something which someone should be able to get away with.”
Dr Fareed Bashir, a consultant forensic psychologist, gave evidence that Linden had an “emotionally unstable personality disorder”.
She was the victim of a sexual assault when she was 15 – the offender was later prosecuted and jailed – and she had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Six months before Linden’s death, she was taken to hospital nine times after trying to kill herself.
The court heard that Mansouri’s computer had been seized by police. Williams told the court: “For 50 minutes, as earlier in the day, he was watching hardcore pornography including penetrative sex.”
Mansouri claimed the sex in his bedroom was consensual and maintained that as he drove towards the city, he had seen the woman waving an arm and thought they must know one another or she must be in distress. The defence had dismissed the victim’s claim she had been abducted as “absurd”.
Judge Raj Shetty told the jury the circumstances of the case (ie the absence of the victim) were unusual but should not affect their judgement in the case.
Sentencing Mansouri, Shetty said: “Ceri Linden was 20 years of age. She was clearly a vulnerable person in respect of characteristics which I have heard about.
“You would not have known about those. She was with two of her friends and she went out that night expecting nothing more than having something to drink, going into the city later on and having a good time.
“She was hailing down various people trying to get their attention. You saw her, stopped your car and she got in.”
The judge pointed out that while Mansouri did not overtly say he was a taxi driver, he went along playing that role. “The victim would not have entered that car if she did not believe she was going to be safely taken into town,” he said.
Shetty described the text messages Linden sent, saying: “She was in fear of what was going to happen next.
“You coldly and calmly told her where she needed to go. You took her upstairs and proceeded to sexually assault and rape her.”
Later she took her own life, and her mother “watched her daughter’s life ebb away from her”.
“To say her life was tragic would be an understatement,” Shetty added. “There is no evidence she took her own life solely because of what you did, but it is obvious the ordeal you put her through was an important factor in her decision.”
Referring to “this horrible rape”, the judge suggested it would be wrong to suggest that it “did not exacerbate or shatter her already fragile state of mind”.
He added: “What you have done is abducted a vulnerable young girl [from] the street by artifice. You have taken her to your house and satisfied your need that night to have sex. You have treated her with complete disdain and contempt.”
The judge said offences of rape “are very serious offences which have a profound effect on victims from which they will not recover”.
Mansouri was put on the sex offender register for life.
Linden’s mother, Eleri Linden, said after the verdict: “Losing her has left a hole in our lives which can never be filled and a pain in our hearts which will never heal. Ceri’s lovely little daughter, Bethan, has to grow up without her beautiful mummy. Ceri was absolutely one of the nicest people I had ever had the pleasure to know.”
DI Clare Coleman, head of the Cheshire police dedicated rape unit, said: “The voice of the victim is at the heart of all we do. When officers first spoke to Ceri she was in trauma, she was finding it difficult to talk about what had happened to her and she was not sure what she wanted to do. Officers from the dedicated rape unit, who are specially trained to support the victims of sex attacks, waited until she was ready to speak.
“This is a brave lady, who found the courage to tell her story. Today, the jury has listened to her words and she has helped to ensure that a very dangerous man has been brought to justice.
“The tragedy of this case is that our victim achieved so much, but will not share the outcome. Our thoughts are with Ceri’s family.”
Claire Lindley, chief crown prosecutor at Mersey-Cheshire Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This is a most tragic case. Despite her terrifying ordeal, the young victim found the courage to go to the police and, with the help of specially trained officers, was able to give a clear, recorded testimony of what had happened to her.
“Sadly, the victim was found dead before the trial began, but her testimony and the other evidence gathered was presented to the court by the prosecution and Masood Mansouri has now been brought to justice.
“We hope this brings some closure to the young woman’s family, who have shown great courage and resolve throughout this case. Our thoughts remain with them at this very difficult time.”
