A man accused of abducting a five year old girl from the street and sexually assaulting her has made his first court appearance.
Mohammed Abdulraziq was allegedly found with the child in a downstairs room of his Winson Green home after her mother heard her cries. The mother attempted to break into the house by smashing a window with a piece of wood, according to what the jury was told.
When she couldn’t break in, a neighbour tried to enter through a window. He reportedly discovered Abdulraziq, 32, and the young girl both partially undressed with their lower clothing around their ankles, say prosecutors. The case comes as an emotional BBC Breakfast guest holds back tears after ‘hellish’ four years.
The neighbour was allegedly attacked by the defendant before other locals managed to enter the house and rescue the little girl. The child is reported to have told her mother “he hurt me” shortly after being saved.
Abdulraziq, a Sudanese national, is on trial at Birmingham Crown Court where he denies charges of false imprisonment with intent to commit a sexual offence, an alternative of false imprisonment as well as sexual assault and assault, as reported by Birmingham Live.
In his opening statement today, Tuesday, September 9, prosecutor Tariq Shakoor said: “This defendant has taken from the street a five-year-old girl into a room of a terraced property he was living in, reports the Mirror.
“He’s locked the front door of the property. He’s locked the door to the room of his property and he’s got the five-year-old girl in this room with him.
“The prosecution case is that he has sexually assaulted her and he’s intended to do more towards her sexually, had it not been for the intervention of her mother, a neighbour and others who intervened breaking doors down effectively to get this girl out of the room.”
The alleged incidents took place from 2pm on March 30 this year when the girl was ‘playing in the street’ whilst her mother was chatting to a friend who lived on the road.
Mr Shakoor said at one point barefooted Abdulraziq approached and made a ‘sly’ remark to the mother which had a ‘sexual connotation’, but she did not fully grasp exactly what he said because he spoke in a different language.
He added the mother had never previously encountered the defendant, who returned to his home.
Mr Shakoor told the court there came a time when the mother could no longer see her child and went searching for her.
He said: “They looked into a park area, thinking the child had gone into the park. The child was not there. They looked into a corner shop. The child was not there. Then they returned to the street, obviously concerned where the child has disappeared to. As they return to the street they hear the sound of crying.”
He stated the mother recognised the sound of her own child crying and identified the home where it was coming from a downstairs open window.
The prosecutor continued: “The front door to the property is locked. (The mother) then starts to bang on the window and door of the property.
“The defendant is plainly in that room with the child at this time and her mother, in panic, picks up a piece of wood to try and smash the window. That window isn’t smashed despite the attempt to break it.”
He told the court the mother’s friend partially climbed through the window and opened the curtains.
Mr Shakoor said: “She sees the child and the defendant. The defendant was next to a bed, (the girl) was opposite him. Her bottoms, described as cycling shorts, are down to her ankles.
“The defendant’s lower clothing was also down to his ankles and the defendant at that stage appears to be bending towards the child, touching her shorts and trying to pull them up.”
The jury was told Abdulraziq ‘swung’ a punch at the woman and shut the window causing her to fall back to the street.
Mr Shakoor said the scenes caused a ‘commotion’, which led to two men ultimately forcing the defendant’s door open.
He stated the girl was told to go back to her mother who took her home.
“She is telling her mother repeatedly ‘he hurt me’, pulled her clothes down and ‘hurt me’,” Mr Shakoor added.
Meanwhile one of the men who forced the door open tried to detain Abdulraziq but left as police arrived ‘very quickly’.
The prosecutor said: “The defendant remains in his room opening and shutting the curtains. The police arrive and he’s arrested. He is taken into custody. He’s Arabic speaking, of Sundanese heritage. He had an interpreter present.
“He’s cautioned. To the questions asked about the events I have just outlined he replied ‘no comment’.”
The trial continues.