A Muslim man who allegedly abducted, raped and forced a teenage girl to marry him against her will in an Islamic ceremony has appeared in court today.

The petrified 18-year-old, who cannot be named, claimed Chafic Charyala, 31, showed up at her bedroom window in Bankstown at 2am on Sunday and threatened to kill her unless she went with him.

It will be alleged the girl’s family had recently rejected a marriage proposal by the alleged kidnapper.

She climbed out of the window and Charyala allegedly drove her to the Novotel hotel in Brighton-Le-Sands.

It is there that police allege the girl was sexually assaulted before being taken to a private home in Lakemba in Sydney’s west where a sheik is then claimed to have married the couple under sharia law.



Charyala, who is understood to be in Australia on a bridging visa, allegedly wrongly thought the ceremony would help him to get residency, but the marriage is not valid under Australian law.

“I just wanted to come back home to my family,” the teenager said.

Charyala tried to drive her 900km south to Melbourne to live with his cousin but the teenager managed get a call for help back to her family in Bankstown.

Police were notified and began looking for the pair, discovering the man had reached Gundagai in the state’s south near Wagga Wagga.

Police found the car on the Hume Hwy, found the girl and arrested Charyala around 9pm on Monday.

He was taken to Wagga Wagga police station and charged with taking or detaining a person with the intention of obtaining an advantage, sexual intercourse without consent and assault with an act of indecency­.

Charyala did not apply for bail yesterday at Wagga Wagga Local Court where Magistrate Michael Crompton formally refused it.

Charyala appeared in Bankstown Local Court today via video link and did not apply for bail, which was formally refused.

The teenager was taken to hospital in Wagga Wagga in a stable condition and made a detailed statement to police before returning to her family.