A stranger allegedly used Google Translate to tell a mother, “I want to f*** you,” during an attack near a London homeless encampment, a jury has heard.
The woman was travelling home alone after spending the evening with a friend when she approached Moustafa Elbohy and a group of Arabic-speaking men at Embankment station.
She spoke to the group because she was interested in the Arabic language and lived near what she described as “a lovely Middle Eastern community”, although she could not speak or understand Arabic, Southwark Crown Court was told on Monday.
Elbohy is accused of grabbing her wrist and leading her to a “dark and dingy” area beneath a nearby bridge.
He denies two charges of rape relating to the alleged incident in September last year.
Prosecutor Richard Milne told jurors that the woman was more than twice the drink-drive alcohol limit when she left a central London wine bar and began her journey home by Thameslink from Blackfriars station.
She remembered being “definitely drunk” but said she was still “with it” enough to use Google Maps for the journey, which took her through Embankment Underground station at about 11.30pm, he said.
“As she walked through, she became aware of a group of men speaking Arabic in the station itself, in Embankment station,” Mr Milne told the court.
A mother was travelling home alone when she approached Moustafa Elbohy and a group of Arabic-speaking men at Embankment station before he allegedly raped her
“She was interested in languages, particularly the Arabic language, because, as she explained it, where she lives… there is a lovely Middle Eastern community.”
The alleged victim recalled speaking to one of the men. There is no dispute that the man was Elbohy because his DNA was later found on her, Mr Milne said.
“She accepts she started speaking to him. She did not feel threatened in any way by this man, the defendant,” he added.
The prosecution said: “Her next recollection is that he grabbed her wrist and she used expressions such as: ‘Kind of dragged me out of the station and away from the station towards the river.’”
“It was at this point, members of the jury, that she began to feel scared and fearful. She was telling him she needed to get home to her husband and children,” he added.
The woman, who cannot be identified because she is an alleged victim of a sexual offence, recalled walking “a short distance from the station to a place that she described as dark and dingy”.
The location appeared to be beneath Hungerford Bridge, where there was “some sort of encampment” covered by “tarpaulin stretched over” it.
“Her recollection is that there was a wall which, she says, he dragged her over. There were tents that appeared to be made from tarpaulin-style material, blue and crinkly, and homeless people were living there. One person in particular appeared to be very unwell and was lying on the ground.
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“She accepts that the details of this part are sketchy. She recalls one tent being larger than the others and, by this stage, she was fearful for her life and scared.”
After outlining the woman’s account of the alleged assault, Mr Milne said: “Her recollection is that at one point he took out his phone and used Google Translate to tell her that he wanted to f*** her.”
“Members of the jury, this may well be important: she was so frightened about what she believed might happen, particularly if she screamed, that he might in fact hurt her.
“Her decision, members of the jury, which may well be important, was to ‘play nice’ — that is the expression she used.
“She described a very angry man and said she was trying to play nice to calm him down. She described him as an extremely volatile man.”
The prosecutor continued: “She knew she was going to be raped and simply wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.”
The alleged victim said she coped by putting “her mind in another place” and claimed she was “pushed to the ground” during the alleged rape, the court heard.
“He was aggressive towards her, shouting at her. She felt disgusted by what he had done,” the prosecutor said.
Mr Milne added: “She tried to leave the area but could not get back over the wall he had pulled her across, and she had to ask him for help to get over the low wall.”
As she made her way back to the station, she “began to appreciate more vividly that what had just happened to her was that she had been raped”, he told jurors.
Elbohy is standing trial at Southwark Crown Court accused of raping the woman in September last year
At 12.30am, the woman called a friend who was in London. He returned her call minutes later and found her within 15 minutes.
“She recalls him arriving while she was sitting on the floor. She remembers telling him she did not want to go to the police because, as she described it to members of the jury, she knew what the narrative would be.
“She knew how rape victims were perceived in the media. She was worried that the narrative would be that she had been drinking, had consumed too much alcohol and was drunk, and that she had not screamed.”
Her friend took her to Charing Cross Police Station, where she reported the alleged rape at 1.15am.
She told police that she had not consented to sex and that the man was not wearing a condom.
The trial continues.