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Woman raped above Folkestone takeaway 20 years ago accuses Sela Sherifi of attack

A woman told a jury she was raped in a flat above a takeaway after being plied with alcohol 20 years ago, aged 14.

The schoolgirl was told “in a minute, in a minute, it’s alright,” as she pleaded with Sela Sherifi to stop assaulting her in 1999, a court heard.

Sherifi, 41, disappeared the same year after being granted bail for the alleged sex attack in Folkestone.

Canterbury Crown Court
Canterbury Crown Court

But Sherifi, formerly of Tontine Street, was stopped after flying from Dublin, where he is believed to have lived, into Gatwick and arrested in January this year, a jury heard.

Opening the Crown’s case, prosecuting barrister Edmund Fowler said Sherifi gave the alleged victim alcohol at Folkestone seafront.

The defendant and his pal then took the girl and her friend back to his flat, where the two girls became separated, Canterbury Crown Court heard.

Mr Fowler told the jury the alleged victim, who claims she was drunk, laid back on Sherifi’s bed and closed her eyes when he attacked her.

“He just kept buying me drinks, first beer in a pitcher then a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale and then Hooch," she told the jury.

“How were you feeling after putting away those drinks?” asked Mr Fowler.

“I was alright to begin with then I felt drunk, woozy and tired – out of it,” she said.

The court heard the four went to Sherifi’s flat, and after becoming broken off from the group, she happened on Sherifi’s bedroom and laid down.

She told the court Sherifi, also known as Ylli Kalemi, entered shortly afterwards and raped her.

She said: “I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to shout out because I didn’t know other people in the flat.

“Then he was trying to penetrate me still being rough. That is when I was saying ‘no, this needs to stop'.

“I think I might have closed my eyes, I don’t know how long it went on for.”

“I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to shout out because I didn’t know other people in the flat..." - Victim

Mr Fowler asked if he did penetrate her and she replied: “Yes. I said stop, he said ‘in a minute, in a minute, it is alright’.”

But defence barrister John Fitzgerald said the alleged attack never happened, adding his client refused her advances.

“Had you and your pal decided to go back to the flat and have some fun with these boys?”

“No, we had no conversation about that,” she replied.

“I suggest on this occasion you asked if he wanted to have sex and he declined.”

“I didn’t want sex at all,” she replied.

The trial continues.

To read more of our in depth coverage of all of the major trials coming out of crown and magistrates' courts across the county, click here.

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