Sudanese immigrant on trial in Bournemouth accused of raping university student after night out

A Sudanese immigrant, Samir Muhammad, is on trial at Bournemouth Crown Court, accused of raping a university student after a night out on December 5, 2021. Prosecutors say he dragged the then-17-year-old from the Cameo nightclub in Bournemouth to his nearby Sandringham House flat, forced her to strip and raped her, keeping her there for more than two hours. Muhammad, now 21, denies two counts of rape. The testimony opened with jurors hearing that the night began with a single drink for the student, who later described feeling markedly intoxicated and disoriented.

Jurors heard that the woman remained inside the flat and was blocked from answering calls from worried friends. She managed to share her location via Snapchat, signaling those trying to locate her after she disappeared from the nightclub. The court was told Muhammad took her phone to prevent contact and, to mislead the victim’s friends, allegedly sent messages posing as the girl and suggesting she was with her boyfriend. The messages prompted the friends to respond that they were on their way to help.

The trial heard that the victim was persuaded to leave Muhammad’s flat when her friends were nearing the premises. When she rejoined them, she was crying and told them she had been raped. Investigators later learned she had been dragged from the club to Muhammad’s flat, where she remained for more than two hours before being allowed to leave during the early hours of the morning. The friends, who had been at the nightclub with her, grew anxious as they could not locate her in the venue or in her halls of residence, and they initially could not contact her because her phone had run out of battery.

Authorities said the group was able to reconnect when she charged her phone in Muhammad’s flat, and a witness described how the friend urged her to turn on her location so they could walk toward her. In a subsequent account to jurors, the friend recalled how the group received a message at about 5:38 a.m. instructing them to turn on location and indicating they were coming to get her. Moments later, the student walked toward the group, described as very hysterical and crying. She later told the friends that she had been raped, prompting them to accompany her to report the incident to police.

Muhammad, who has been identified in court as the defendant, denies two counts of rape. The Crown Court hears that the defendant and the victim had met at the Cameo nightclub on the night in question, and the first-year student was taken to the nearby flat after leaving the venue. The defense contends there is an alternative sequence of events, but the prosecution says the evidence supports the charges. The trial continues to weigh the accounts of the alleged victim, the efforts of her friends to locate her, and the defendant’s account of what transpired that night.

The case underscores the stakes surrounding consent and safety in nightlife settings, as jurors assess competing narratives based on the student’s recollections, messages recovered from her phone, and the timeline established by police and investigators. The outcome remains pending as prosecutors seek a verdict on the two rape counts and the defense maintains that the evidence has not established guilt beyond reasonable doubt.