'I didn't know my rapist was living around the corner'

A WOMAN who was dragged off a Hull street and raped by a stranger has spoken of her shock at discovering her attacker continued living around the corner from her for eight years.

The woman, now 29, was abducted from Spring Bank and subjected to a terrifying attack as she walked home from a nightclub in 2004.

She reported the assault to the police, and Ethiopian asylum seeker Ybrah Haylemaryam was questioned but not charged, because of a lack of evidence. He has only now been brought to justice, after raping another woman last year.

Haylemaryam's first victim told the Mail: "I got on with my life by telling myself he would have left the country or moved away, but when this came out I realised he had been living around the corner from me for all these years.

"I was angry it had happened to someone else. My heart went out to her.

"I had to go to court to make sure it never happens to someone else.

"I just want to tell every woman to stay away from him. I never want anyone else's life affected the way mine has been.

"I was upset when they dropped my case at the time, but I understood.

"It took me a few years to be able to move on with my life. I was frightened to go anywhere.

"I just hate him for what he has done to me and what he has put my family through."

In 2004, Haylemaryam watched his first victim carrying her shoes and followed her down Spring Bank. He then forced her into his home, which was nearby.

The woman, who was 20 at the time, tried to call for help on her mobile phone but the battery was flat.

When she got away, the woman told her friends what had happened and they called the police.

"It was terrifying," she said. "I thought he was going to kill me.

"It was the most terrifying experience of my life.

"When I had a chance to run, I took it. I still thank God I ran because he could have killed me."

Haylemaryam attacked a second woman in her home in Hull eight years later after a first date with her.

After this, the original investigation was reopened.

Haylemaryam was convicted by a jury at Hull Crown Court of two counts of false imprisonment, four rapes and three sexual assaults on the two women.

The jury of eight men and four women took three hours to unanimously convict him and Haylemaryam was given a 20-year extended prison sentence.

Judge Mark Bury told him: "The facts of these two incidents leads me to the conclusion you pose a significant risk of serious harm to female members of the public.

"You are, therefore, a dangerous offender. You have been convicted of two sex attacks on two different women, eight years apart."

The court heard Haylemaryam had lived in the Spring Bank area of Hull for nine years.

Prosecutor Richard Woolfall suggested he might not be deported because his country is unsafe. A decision will be made by the Home Office after Haylemaryam has served his sentence.