Corosh Ykkta

An unemployed Iranian asylum seeker has been jailed for eight years after twice raping a Polish woman in Muswell Hill during a terrifying five-hour ordeal. Corosh Ykkta, 22, who was living in a flatshare in Queens Avenue, Muswell Hill, at the time, was convicted at Wood Green Crown Court on Monday following a jury trial.

The attacks occurred on Saturday, April 9, last year. Ykkta met his victim, a 19-year-old Polish woman who had only been in the country for three weeks, in Wood Green High Road around 8pm on the preceding Friday evening. Despite his rudimentary grasp of English, Ykkta befriended the young woman and, at around 1am on Saturday morning, lured her to Alexandra Park where he raped her for the first time. He then drove her to Kings Avenue, where he raped her again in his car. Haringey police noted that the early hours of the morning meant few people were around at the time of the assaults.

Using descriptions provided by the victim about Ykkta's appearance and clothing, police tracked him to his address in Queens Avenue and arrested him on April 14 last year. The victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was living in Wood Green at the time and has since left the UK. Detective Constable Ade Onabajo, of Haringey police, commented on the profound impact of the offences: "She'll never be the same again, bearing in mind the nature of the offence. She did say she had been affected in the way she is as a person. She used to be bubbly, but she no longer goes out at night and looks over her shoulder all the time."

Little is known about Ykkta's background prior to the incident, though Det Con Onabajo estimated he had been in the country for about six months, a detail that could not be verified. Despite Ykkta's claims of innocence during the trial, the jury found him guilty of the double rape. Upon completion of his eight-year sentence, he will be deported to his native Iran.

The case was reported by The Tottenham Independent, with the article authored by Peter Stebbings and supported by a subscriber partnership with USA Today.