Delivery driver who raped vulnerable woman jailed

A delivery driver who raped a vulnerable woman in a car park after she had left hospital has been jailed.

The victim had attended Worthing Hospital "intoxicated, confused and unsteady on her feet" before Suleman Mukaish grabbed her, forced her onto the bonnet of a car and attacked her on 11 March, Hove Crown Court was told.

The 27-year-old was arrested two days later at Gatwick Airport with a one-way ticket to Pakistan.

Mukaish, from Worthing, West Sussex, admitted rape at an earlier hearing and was jailed for eight years and three months on Tuesday.

He will spend a further three years on extended licence.

The woman had attempted to hold on to the wall to stop him before the attack, the court was told.

She was found a short time later by a member of the public and said that she had been raped.

Police were called and the woman was able to identify the car, where hand and fingerprints were found.

Sentencing Mukaish, Judge Christine Henson KC said that the woman had been "at her most vulnerable when you, a complete stranger, raped her over the bonnet of a car in the car park adjacent to the hospital that she had just left".

She added that the psychological impact on the woman had been "immense" and that she was unable to return to the hospital because of flashbacks.

The court heard that Mukaish was in the UK on a student visa with graduate leave until 2028. He had studied computer science and passed a master's degree.

His defence said that he claimed he saw the woman in trouble and stopped to assist her.

Mukaish claimed that the woman asked him for money and he offered it "essentially on an understanding" that he could do what he wanted, the defence counsel said.

The barrister said that Mukaish accepted the woman did not have capacity to consent.

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