Jailed: the fast food worker who stalked and raped students

A fast food worker who brutally raped two students in south Manchester has been jailed indefinitely and will serve a minimum of eight years.

Asim Javed, who worked at Dixy Chicken in Fallowfield, pleaded guilty to two counts of rape at Manchester Crown Court in July, and was sentenced at the end of last month.

Javed used his job at the takeaway to identify victims.

The detective who helped catch Javed said the attacks were “some of the worst” he had ever investigated.

The Students’ Union (UMSU) offered self-defence classes and gave out free rape alarms in the wake of the attacks.

Javed committed the rapes in December 2009 and September 2010. In both cases he targeted young women walking home alone late at night and used his car to stalk potential victims.

Javed was caught on CCTV stalking his first victim in Didsbury. He passed by her several times in his car before pulling up and offering her a lift home. He spoke to the girl’s father on the phone to assure him she was safe, before parking nearby and raping her.

During the second attack, Javed forced a student into the back of his car and threatened her with a weapon, believed to be a knitting needle, and forced her to perform a sex act on him.

He has been jailed indeterminately and will be on the sex offenders’ register for life.

It took a team of thirty officers, cutting-edge photo-fit technology and DNA profiling, which proved both attacks were by the same man, to catch Javed.

Police received scores of calls from members of the public who recognised Javed from the “evo-fit” image released earlier this year. The technology is more accurate than traditional e-fits; witnesses are asked to choose the six most likely faces from a number of options.

This in turn produces dozens of other faces, from which the witness chooses six more faces with the closest likeness.

The process is repeated until a close likeness of the suspect has ‘evolved’. Older technologies used components of faces to compose an image of the suspect.

Student Sam Falk used to live in Owens Park, close to where Javed stalked his victims. He said, “It’s important for everyone in a student area to feel safe. Bringing people like this to justice is all part of achieving that feeling of security”.

Sentencing at Liverpool Crown Court, Judge Clement Goldstone QC told Javed, “The circumstances of these offences make you out as a highly dangerous young man. I have a duty to protect the public until such time as it is safe for you to be released.”

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Marsh praised the victims for contacting the police.

He said, “Javed used his job in the heart of Fallowfield to identify potential victims then used his car to essentially stalk them.

“I have to pay tribute to both victims for having the courage to contact police and then fully helping us with our investigation.

“I know these attacks caused a lot of concern in Fallowfield and among students at the time. I hope this sentence acts as some reassurance that we will not stop until we bring the perpetrators to justice.”

Figures obtained by The Mancunion reveal that out of 2062 rapes and sexual assaults in Greater Manchester last year, only 600 resulted in suspects being charged.