Failed asylum seeker raped woman at Glasgow party Published duration 30 September 2015

image copyright Glasgow Courts Press Agency

A failed asylum seeker who raped a woman almost four years after he was ordered out of the UK has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Father-of-two Aly Donzo, 23, was convicted of raping a 20-year-old at a party in Glasgow on 30 May last year.

The High Court in Glasgow heard that the rape was committed in a flat in Plantation Park Gardens provided to Donzo by the Home Office.

During his trial Donzo denied rape and claimed the sex was consensual.

The victim told advocate depute Sheena Fraser, prosecuting, that she was at a party where Donzo, who comes from Guinea, was also present.

During the evening, as she came out the toilet, he grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her towards a bedroom.

'Wounded animal'

She said he had pushed her onto a bed and pulled down her trousers and underwear.

"I tried to push at his chest to get him off. But he was much bigger and stronger than me. I didn't want it to happen. I didn't want him to touch me. I said no," she said.

The woman told the court she just kept saying she wanted to go.

She told the court she pleaded with Donzo, telling him she had a boyfriend. After raping her Donzo got up and walked out the room.

Other partygoers said the woman was distressed when she came out of the bedroom.

Minutes later, as she left the house to get a taxi, Donzo called after her: "See you later gorgeous."

A taxi driver who picked her and a friend up from the flat where the rape took place described her as "staring ahead expressionless" and then "crying like a wounded animal."

The cabbie said the woman then started moaning and whimpering and added that her friend said she had just been raped.

Asylum refused

The court heard that Donzo had entered the UK on 3 March 2010 and applied for asylum. He was served with papers on 20 March that year, stating he was in the country illegally.

On 15 April 2010 his application for asylum was refused and on 29 September that year further submissions to the Home Office were rejected.

On 7 October 2010 Donzo was told he had no further right of appeal and was told to leave the UK.

His defence team claimed he was "hiding in plain sight" all the time and the authorities could have easily found and deported him.

Defence advocate John McLaughlin told the court that Donzo still claimed that the sex was consensual and denied raping the woman.

Mr McLaughlin said: "Mr Donzo operated in full view of the authorities. There has been nothing secretive or fly about his life."

The advocate added: "The flat which is the locus of the offence appears to have been provided by the Home Office."

Donzo was also accused of raping another woman at another Glasgow flat on 2 January 2012, but this charge was withdrawn from the indictment after the alleged victim failed to turn up to give evidence.

Judge Lord Bonomy told Donzo: "There is increasing public concern in Scotland about sexual offending. This was a serious assault on the personal integrity of your victim."

He ordered Donzo to start his sentence at the end of a 32-month sentence he is currently serving for drugs offences.

Lord Bonomy also placed Donzo on the sex offenders' register.