An asylum seeker has denied charges of rape and sexual assault, claiming he met a 16-year-old girl who falsely stated her age and initiated intimate contact.
Mourad Iyad Marei Salloum, 20, is on trial at Manchester Crown Court, where he denies three counts of rape and one of sexual assault. The prosecution alleges Salloum attacked the teenager after meeting her minutes earlier in Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, on February 28. The girl, who had been drinking, reportedly asked Salloum and a friend for a cigarette, and was then allegedly lured to a car park.
Salloum, originally from Jordan, testified through an interpreter that he met the girl and that she expressed attraction to him. He claims she hugged and kissed him, and he responded by kissing her neck. He also stated the girl asked to go home with him and his friend, citing a lack of money for a taxi, but was refused as they were staying at a "Home Office hotel."
The prosecution presented DNA evidence found on the teenager's neck and clothing, stating it is "one billion times more likely" to belong to Salloum than an unknown male. CCTV footage allegedly shows the teenager following the two men to the car park, where the assault is said to have occurred. The court heard that the attack reportedly stopped when Salloum's friend interrupted and then asked, "When is it my turn?"
Salloum denies entering the car park and disputes that the teenager appears in the CCTV footage, claiming it shows a different man. The prosecution has called his claims a "fabrication."
Under cross-examination, Salloum was asked if he had raped the girl and replied, "No, never." He also has a previous conviction for sexually assaulting a woman in Liverpool, for which he received a 16-week jail sentence after admitting to pulling his victim into a shop doorway, placing his hands around her throat, kissing her, and touching her buttocks.
The trial is ongoing.