Convicted rapist jailed for life for second attack months after release

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A convicted rapist who hit a woman over the head, dragged her into bushes and tried to rape her within 22 months of his release from prison has been jailed for life.

Uganda-born Ramazan Mukalazi, 40, had lost his right to live in Britain after being jailed for raping a 21-year-old woman as she was going home from a night out in central London in 2008.

The Old Bailey was told he grabbed his victim from behind and told her “if you scream I will rip your tongue out” before raping her.

Last November, within 22 months of his release on immigration bail, he subjected a 66-year-old woman to a second “ferocious” stranger sex attack after consuming alcohol and cannabis, the Old Bailey was told.

Mukalazi, from Hounslow, west London, pleaded guilty to attempted rape and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

On Friday, Judge Paul Dugdale told Mukalazi he is a “very dangerous” man and jailed him for life with a minimum term of 11 years.

He told the defendant: “You brutally attacked a 66-year-old woman walking on her own along the street in Hounslow in the darkness of a November morning.

“You attacked her for the sole purpose of raping her, which is what you then attempted to do.

“You beat her to the head, causing her to suffer a bleed on the brain, causing her to be hospitalised for a week.

“You pose an ongoing risk that you will rape again and in violent circumstances. In my judgement you are a very dangerous man.”

Setting out the background to the case, prosecutor Max Hardy said the defendant was handed an indeterminate sentence with a minimum term of 48 months in jail for rape in 2009 and recommended for deportation.

He was released on licence in September 2018 but recalled in October 2019 for “risky behaviour” – described as making unwanted advances towards a woman at a Cheshire nightclub.

He was later transferred to an immigration detention centre before being released on immigration bail in January 2021.

Early last November 2, the 66-year-old victim was seen lying hurt on the pavement in Martindale Road, Hounslow, with the defendant crouching next to her.

A passerby mistakenly thought he was tending to the woman, who was making a “gargling sound”, Mr Hardy said.

Asked if an ambulance should be called, Mukalazi told the man to “go away”.

After calling an ambulance, the man was “shocked” to return to the scene and find the defendant dragging the woman by the feet into an alleyway.

He alerted police and officers found the defendant with his trousers around his ankles and on top of the woman in a garden, the court was told.

The victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had serious head wounds and her face was covered in blood.

After being charged, the defendant initially claimed he found the woman lying on the ground and she had fallen into a wooden fence and on to concrete.

But a medical report concluded she had been hit on the ear, punched in the eye and suffered blows to the head in a violent attack.

In mitigation, Felicia Davy said the defendant, who has lived in the UK since the age of seven, had been in a “state of desperation”.

She said the involvement of immigration “assisted nobody in this case” and bids to deport him were “in name only”.

Ms Davy told the court her client was “set up to fail” after leaving prison and becoming homeless because he could not work or claim benefits as a result of his changed immigration status.

She said: “At the time of the offences he had been living with his father. He had been consuming alcohol and cannabis. He was really at an incredibly low ebb.”

She added: “Through me, he expresses remorse and says he is sorry. He knows there is no excuse.”

Judge Dugdale said that after the second attack, the defendant was recalled under his original IPP (Imprisonment for public protection) sentence.

He told the defendant: “The public protection powers of the IPP were clearly inadequate to control the danger you posed to the public.”