Man pleads not guilty to multiple rape counts in Manchester
An asylum seeker from Jordan has denied repeatedly raping a 16-year-old girl he allegedly lured to a car park in Manchester city centre after they met minutes earlier when she asked him for a cigarette. Mourad Iyad Marei Salloum, 20, is on trial at Manchester Crown Court facing three counts of rape and one of sexual assault, and told the court through an interpreter that the encounter was consensual, insisting he never raped her.
Salloum claims the girl, who he said told him she was almost 19, hugged and kissed him before asking to go home with him, which he and a friend refused. The prosecution alleges CCTV shows the teenager following Salloum and another man to a car park, where she was raped multiple times until the attack was interrupted by his friend. Jurors heard DNA found on the girl's neck and jogging bottoms is "one billion times" more likely to belong to Salloum than an unknown man, a claim he disputes, along with his identification in the CCTV footage. The court also heard he has a previous conviction for sexually assaulting a woman in Liverpool, for which he was jailed for 16 weeks.
- Asylum seeker, 20, denies raping teenage girl in Manchester car park
- He claims encounter was consensual; DNA evidence links him to victim
- Trial ongoing at Manchester Crown Court; he has prior sexual assault conviction
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Salloum, 20, an asylum seeker from Jordan, is on trial at Manchester Crown Court accused of raping a 16-year-old girl in a car park in the city centre. He denies three counts of rape and one of sexual assault, saying through an interpreter that what happened was consensual.
The case centres on what took place after the pair met briefly in the street, with prosecutors alleging he lured her to a car park where she was raped, an account he disputes. Evidence expected to feature in the trial includes CCTV footage and DNA analysis, both of which are contested by the defence, alongside details of an earlier conviction for a separate sexual assault.
The trial matters because it will determine whether a serious criminal charge against Salloum is proven, and it turns on disputed questions of consent, identification and forensic evidence that a jury must weigh. As with any active criminal case, the facts remain contested until the court reaches its verdict.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “Asylum seeker denies repeatedly raping 16-year-old girl after ‘luring her to city centre car park’”.