Rapist attacked woman at takeaway restaurant he owned

A takeaway owner who abducted and raped a vulnerable young woman at his fast-food restaurant has been jailed for six years.

Behroz Hamedi assaulted the intoxicated 21-year-old victim after she became separated from friends on a night out in Aberdeen city centre.

Hamedi, 60, locked her in Marco’s Fast Food in the city’s Belmont Street before carrying out a sustained attack.

A judge told him at the High Court in Edinburgh: “This was, in my view, an opportunistic sexual crime with a predatory component.”

Lord Arthurson said the seriousness of the offence required that a substantial custodial sentence by imposed.

The judge said that the sex crime appeared to be “wholly out of character” but noted that Hamedi appeared to minimise his criminal conduct during discussions with a social worker who prepared a background report on him.

Hamedi, formerly of Pine Crescent Walk, Bieldside, Aberdeen, had earlier denied raping the woman at the food premises on November 1 in 2018, but was found guilty after a trial.

Lord Arthurson told him: “Your defence of consent was plainly rejected.”

During the attack on the victim, who was intoxicated with drink, Hamedi kissed her and performed a sex act on her before going on to rape her. She was incapable of consenting due to her condition.

The woman told his trial that she could not say how she arrived at the takeaway and said there was “no way” she could have consented because she was “just too drunk”.

Hamedi had been due to be sentenced for the rape last month but the case was continued until today to get a report from a psychologist after it emerged he was previously diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at a clinic in Iran.

Defence counsel David Moggach told the court that Professor Gary Macpherson had found “no compelling evidence” of Asperger’s.

He said Hamedi has always maintained that he believed the woman knew what she was doing and was consenting.

He said Hamedi, a married man, had come to the UK when he was 18 to better himself, but his parents were still in Iran.

Mr Moggach said: “I would submit he has been a hard-working man, trying to make the most of the opportunities he has had to provide for his family and himself.”

The defence counsel said that since his conviction many people had written expressing their “shock and surprise” at what had happened.

He said the offence appeared to be opportunistic rather than planned and added: “He clearly badly misread the situation.”

Mr Moggach said that Hamedi was earlier freed on bail in November 2018 and placed under a curfew, which meant he could not work and effectively deprived him of his livelihood.

He said Hamedi could not visit Iran to see his father. Hamedi, who followed proceedings with a TV link to prison, was told he will be on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.