Clapham chemical attack suspect Abdul Ezedi’s sex assault victim says fugitive is ‘danger to women’
Abdul Ezedi’s first victim has spoken out for the first time
Sign up for the Independent Women email for the latest news, opinion and features
Get the Independent Women email for free
Get the Independent Women email for free
The first victim of the suspected Clapham chemical attacker Abdul Ezedi has spoken of her desire to see him caught as the search for the Met’s most wanted enters its seventh day.
Ezedi was accused of grabbing the bottom of a woman without her consent in 2017, as well as committing a sex attack that same year, according to court documents.
The victim told the Sun newspaper Ezedi should not have been allowed to remain in the UK.
She also blasted a church for giving him a reference which reportedly helped him to gain asylum on his third attempt.
“If he’d been jailed for attacking me then surely he would have been deported,” she said.
“But the failings didn’t end there because someone from a church gave him a reference so he could gain asylum.
“Who in their right mind thought that was a good idea when he was on the sex offender register? The world is a mess.
“He’s a danger to women. That’s obvious to everyone.
“It all came flooding back when the story broke of the attack.
“When his photo came up on TV I said out loud, ‘Oh my God look who is on there’.
“I’ve been following it every day in the hope of seeing him arrested – or dead.
“I feel awful saying it, but it’s true.”
Ezedi, believed to be from Afghanistan, was handed a suspended sentence at Newcastle Crown Court on January 9, 2018 after pleading guilty to charges of sexual assault and exposure and was placed on the sex offender register for 10 years and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
On Tuesday, police said “painstaking work” by counter terrorism officers – who are “highly experienced in manhunts and tracking offenders” and have been drafted in to help scour hundreds of hours of CCTV – meant Ezedi had now been traced from his last-known position at 9.47pm on Allhallows Lane in the City of London.
At 9.54pm he travelled along Upper Thames Street and then into Pauls Walk, passing the City of London School and then towards Blackfriars Bridge.
The most recent sighting is at 10.04pm on January 31 when he passed the Unilever building and headed towards Victoria Embankment, the Met said.
They tracked his movements around the Tube network using his bank card, but it has not been used since that day.
Retired Detective Superintendent Shabnam Chaudhri told The Independent: “The police have mentioned they think he may have taken his own life.
“The biggest telling thing about the latest police briefing was they need a mobile or financial footprint in order to track him.
“The last time he used bank stuff was when on CCTV. So either he has jumped in the Thames or he has a very trusted contact here who is allowing him to use their credit card details.”
She added: “Someone has given him a heads up where the victim is in Clapham. I don’t know how but maybe he tracked her phone or lured her somewhere on the pretext of something else.
“Those injuries can be made to look less conspicuous after time. As the days have worn on the fact that she is in a critical state with all the right medical attention and he has nothing. He could have easily collapsed somewhere where he is hidden.
“I’m surprised they don’t have the police dogs out searching the Southwark area.
“After it goes to a week people start to lose faith in the Met thinking they are not doing their job when they really are.
“People move on to other news so the Met’s focus is to keep the public eye on the search.”
A reference from a Baptist chapel in the North East, where Ezedi was living, was central to persuading an immigration tribunal that he had converted to Christianity, the Daily Mail has reported, quoting a government source. This reference helped in his asylum application, the newspaper said.