Sudanese migrant denies rape, says university student initiated consensual sex
21-year-old Samir Muhammad tells Bournemouth Crown Court the encounter began with the woman asking to return to a flat to charge her phone and that two consensual sexual acts followed
A Sudanese migrant accused of raping a university student in Bournemouth last December told Bournemouth Crown Court that the encounter was consensual, saying the complainant initiated sex after returning to a flat to charge her phone. Samir Muhammad, 21, denies dragging the woman from a nightclub, raping her, and holding her against her will for about two hours at a friend’s flat in Sandringham House.
Muhammad testified that the young woman asked to go back to the flat to charge her phone, then removed her clothes and climbed on top of him; they had consensual sex twice, and he said they were both happy. The alleged rape occurred just months after he arrived in the United Kingdom, with his arrival estimated to have been when he was 16 or 17, after he fled Sudan. The court has not disclosed his immigration status. The trial heard he met the first-year university student in the Cameo nightclub in Bournemouth, Dorset, in the early hours of December 5, 2021.
The prosecution’s case, as presented to the jury, described a sequence in which the complainant had one drink in the club and then felt “out of it” when Muhammad dragged her outside at about 3:20 a.m. He allegedly took her to the flat where he was staying, at Sandringham House, and she testified that he forced her to undress, pinned her down, and raped her despite her pleas for him to stop. It is alleged that he refused to let her leave and blocked her calls from friends who were trying to reach her. She borrowed his charger and was able to share her location with friends on Snapchat, who testified that they were on their way to help.
The court heard she was able to persuade him to let her leave at about 5:50 a.m., and when she reunited with her friends she cried and told them she had been raped. Muhammad, whose first language is Zaghawa, told the court that the girl had asked to come home with him to charge her phone. He described the exchange as follows: “I said, can I get your number and she said my phone is dead, can I come with you to charge my phone? I said it was not my flat and I will ask my friend. He said okay.” He maintained that the sex was consensual, saying, “She took her clothes off, she was hugging me. I’m happy, she was happy as well. I didn’t force her.”
Muhammad also denied preventing the alleged victim from leaving or from using her phone. He said he told her two or three times to stay, adding that he asked her to remain because it was dark and he wanted her to be safe, and that he would walk with her to meet her friend. He said she gave his hand a kiss and told him, “see you later.” He described sending a Snapchat message to ask if she had met her friends, noting that she had not replied. He reiterated that he put his number in her phone because, he claimed, they were planning to meet again.
The defense maintains that the encounter was consensual and that the woman initiated the return to the flat to charge her phone, while the prosecutor contends that the jury must weigh competing accounts of coercion and consent. Muhammad denies two counts of rape, and the trial continues with additional testimony and evidence yet to be presented. The case highlights the complexities of alleged sexual violence involving migrant individuals and the uncertainties that can accompany testimonies in court.