Rapists jailed for park attack

Elliot Furniss

TWO rapists have been jailed for a total of 16 years after carrying out a pair of “predatory” sex attacks in Essex.

Jamoliddin Tulaganov and Nuriddin Shakhabutdinov, both from Uzbekistan, were handed the terms at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday.

Tulaganov had denied raping a woman in January during a night out and sexually assaulting another woman in the same Chelmsford park last November, but was found guilty by a jury and has now been sentenced to nine years in jail.

No decision was reached on a further charge of anal rape.

Shakhabutdinov, who had earlier admitted rape, sexual assault and common assault, was given seven years and seven months.

Judge David Turner QC said the offences warranted lengthy sentences and their imprisonment would make Chelmsford a safer place.

He said: “You are friends, housemates, compatriots and co-workers and you are also both opportunistic sexual predators operating together.

“The nightclubs of Chelmsford and the women who visit and enjoy them will face a lesser risk as a consequence of the substantial sentences you both face.”

Both men, of Byron Road, Chelmsford, were placed on the sex offenders register and were told they would be deported to their homeland after their release.

Chief Inspector Glenn Maleary said the January rape was an “appalling crime” against a young woman who had gone out that evening to enjoy herself.

He said: “Instead she was brutally raped by two men who attacked her as she was walking through the park. She was left severely distressed and is still finding it extremely difficult to come to terms with the trauma she has suffered.”

He said the two men were detained shortly after the attack thanks to considerable help from members of the public, members of the Safer Bars scheme and CCTV operators.

“A number of people came forward after we issued an appeal for help and what they told us led to these men being traced and charged,” he added. “We are especially grateful to one man in particular who provided a valuable witness statement.”

During the trial the court was told that on January 14 the friends had been at Chicago's nightclub and had tried to dance with two women but were turned down.

Once outside the club, one of the two women left in a taxi - leaving her friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, alone with the men.

They then proceeded to rape her as they walked her through the park in the early hours of the morning, the jury heard.

The court was told that the victim was first raped by 23-year-old Tulaganov who then gave her £40 cash, which the prosecution said had been done in “the vain hope that it would stop her complaining” about what happened.

When Shakhabutdinov, 22, returned to the scene, the woman, who did not speak much English, tried to explain to him what had happened - but he pushed her to the floor and raped her.

The jury of six women and six men also heard how another woman was also attacked by the same men during a night out in the town last November.