Five Libyan soldiers have been jailed after drunkenly rampaging through Cambridge city centre, raping a man and sexually assaulting four women.
Moktar Ali Saad Mahmoud, 33, and Ibrahim Abugtila, 23, were jailed for 12 years for the incident in which they pounced on a drunken man like a pair of “hunting dogs” before taking it in turns to rape him after leaving their army barracks without permission.
The Daily Mail reports that three other Libyan soldiers from the same base have also been jailed for sexually assaulting four women on the same night after stealing bikes and cycling into the city. They roamed the streets looking for victims before assaulting all four women within the space of an hour.
The men, who have been named as Ibrahim El Maarfi, 21, Mohammed Abdalsalam, 27, and Khaled El Azibi, 19, all admitted to the assault. Azibi was jailed for 12 months, while the other two were jailed for 10 months. They will all be deported once they have served their sentences.
The male rape victim, who was in his 20s and had been at a wedding, described his attackers as “horrendous” and “not human”. He said: “I cannot believe what I’m saying, they raped me. It was horrible, I feel horrible. Don’t say anything to my mum.”
He told officers: “They were horrendous, they weren’t human. They weren’t human people. They were horrendous people, they were sick people. They don’t deserve to live, they shouldn’t be alive.”
Prosecutor John Farmer said the men “behaved like two hunting dogs who had seen a wounded animal.”
“They effectively took him over and, initially not using too much force and later more forcefully, kept him going in the direction they wanted him to go.”
Mahmood and Abugtila took the man to a park where they held him down and took it in turn to rape him. They will also be deported once they have served their sentences.
After the sentences were announced, Detective Inspector Alan Page said: “This was a truly horrendous crime and I hope today’s result will allow the victim some closure and to begin rebuilding his life.
“He has shown tremendous bravery throughout this whole process and I am grateful to him for the trust he placed in police in ensuring that justice was done.
“These men deliberately targeted their victim because of his vulnerability that night, which they took advantage of to commit this callous crime.”
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