A rapist who subjected a young pub worker to a 3-hour ordeal in undergrowth and bushes was jailed for life today, Friday, December 19.

Drunken Abdul Ghafoor, 33, at one stage forced the young woman to perform a sex act on him saying: “You white girls are good at it.”

The stranger rape by the married father-of-four was described by the prosecutor at Luton crown court as a nightmare that came true.

The father-of-four grabbed the woman, who is in her 20s, as she was walked home from work through Bedford late at night. He had earlier propositioned two other white women, demanding that they perform a sex act on him.

On May 30 this year the victim finished work and sent a WhatsApp message to her sister to say she was walking home to their flat.

Ghafoor, of Nash Road in Bedford, came up behind the woman in Cardington Road as she headed to the Tesco store. He bundled her into bushes and undergrowth, where she was subjected to a sustained sex attack.

The woman sent a WhatsApp text saying: “Help me” before her phone was smashed by Ghafoor. At one point she managed to make a run for it when Ghafoor vomited as a result of the five rum drinks he had consumed. But he caught her and took her back into the undergrowth where the sexual abuse continued.

Her sister had raised the alarm and the victim heard the police helicopter overhead as a major search was launched to find her.

Eventually he allowed her to get dressed and walked out on to the road with her, saying she should walk into town with him, but they were seen by Police Inspector James Longwith. She got into the officer’s car while Ghafoor tried to escape, but was caught.

Prosecutor Sally Hobson said Ghafoor’s behaviour had a racial aspect, as he had made comments to the effect that it is the sort of behaviour white women would engage in.

“He made racially aggravated comments to the effect that this is the sort of behaviour that white women would engage in.

“She was a white woman and he believed it was ok to behave in this way. It was a stranger rape of a young woman going about her business in her home town, where she ought to feel safe.”

Earlier the prosecutor said: “We all see the news and we know the dangers of walking home. For the woman, a nightmare came true that night.”

Ms Hobson said the victim had been “like a frightened rabbit in the headlights” when she gave evidence in the witness box.” She has been seeing a specialist counsellor and she is on medication and suffers from nightmares.

But she described her as “extremely brave young lady who conducted herself with dignity.” The victim listened to the sentencing from another room in the court building via a link.

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The Sunday Express is campaigning for a “one-punch law” to bring in minimum eight-year jail terms for such dangerous assaults to act as a deterrent and stop courts handing out soft jail terms that deny victims’ families justice.

Patricia Harrison, 47, had to listen as a group of men started shouting at her husband Kevin while she was talking to him before his phone suddenly cut out.

The 48-year-old had been knocked unconscious by a single punch. He fell to the pavement, suffering a severe brain injury.

CCTV footage of the attack in Bedford town centre showed he was hit for accidentally bumping into a cousin of his killer Ravi Sandhu.

Patricia spent an agonising week keeping vigil at Kevin’s hospital bedside before he died from his injury.

Sandhu, 26, of Bedford, showed no remorse after being convicted of manslaughter by a jury in Luton Crown Court in April 2012.

He is likely to be released later this year after serving just half of a five-year prison sentence.

Patricia, who has moved from Bedford to Northampton, was sickened to be told the thug had applied to be moved to a cushy ­category D prison after just one year behind bars and has been released at weekends to prepare him for re-entering the community.

She said: “Five years is not long enough for having taken a life but if he is sentenced to five years he should at least serve five.

“I also cannot understand why he is being released at weekends to enjoy his freedom. This makes me feel like we have been cheated and that Kevin’s death did not mean that much.”

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