By Karen Sweeney, Aap
The mocking and taunting of a young woman online, blamed for her own sexual assault, has been rebuked by a judge as amounting to a form of emotional rape.
At 19-years-old the young woman was raped and sexually assaulted by a rideshare driver who picked her up outside a Collingwood nightclub, where she was celebrating a friend’s birthday, claiming to be offering a free Uber ride.
Instead, 50-year-old father-of-five Abdouslam Alsharif took advantage of the young woman, locking his car doors and driving to a secluded street where he perpetrated a predatory and deliberate attack.
Alsharif sexually assaulted her in the passenger seat of his car while she repeatedly protested and told him to stop.
She blacked out and woke to him raping her.
The woman sent her location to a friend via Facebook and that information was passed on to police who found her in a nearby street, where Alsharif had left her.
The woman has undergone two years of intensive trauma-based therapy since the attack, including spending three weeks in a hospital psychiatric ward.
“In the back of my mind I truly don’t think I will ever recover from what has happened, which breaks my heart because I just really miss who I used to be before it happened,” she said.
The woman revealed she was further upset by cruel comments on social media and websites, including remarks which blamed her for what had happened, and the creation of a meme.
In sentencing Alsharif to seven years behind bars for his crimes, County Court Judge Liz Gaynor also blasted the online commentators.
It’s an attack that could have happened to their sister, daughter or partner, she said.
“As to those people who use social media to mock and taunt the complainant, their actions in my view were a form of emotional rape,” she said.
“It has added greatly to the suffering of a young woman, already staggering under the weight of the trauma inflicted upon her.”
The court heard Alsharif had come to Australia from Libya on a scholarship to study a PhD in biology, but that funding was terminated after the fall of the Gaddafi regime, which also led to his family’s persecution.
He was granted refugee status in 2014 and became an Australian citizen a year later.
Poor English meant he was only able to secure low-paying research assistant work and he turned to rideshare driving to make ends meet.
He experienced trauma after his family’s persecution and struggled with not being able to financially support other family overseas.
His lawyer described him as vulnerable but conceded there was no connection between his psychological state and the offending.
Judge Gaynor previously hit out at the entitlement of some men to take out their own emotional anguish and difficulties by sexually assaulting young women.
“(There is) this notion of a man in turmoil – something clicks over in his head and the way to relieve that is by sexually assaulting a woman,” she said.
She said the entitlement did not belong to men, but to young women and all rideshare passengers to a ride home safe from predatory sexual attacks that devastate every aspect of their lives.
Alsharif will be eligible for parole after serving four-and-a-half years behind bars.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
