Nurazzaman Shahin, who was sentenced yesterday at Snaresbrook Crown Court, was found guilty of 22 offences – after two women supported by Centre for Women’s Justice played a crucial role in bringing him to justice.
As young women, both ‘Sam’ and ‘Audrey’ were targeted by Shahin via legitimate job platforms and applied for agency work at his advertised escorting business, Soulmate Escorts. When they arrived at Shahin’s offices for their interview, they were ushered into a private room, and coerced into having sex with him against their will. Shahin then prostituted and financially exploited ‘Sam’ and ‘Audrey’ over a period of several days, forcing them into dangerous situations with ‘punters’, and coercing them into sexual acts against their will, for which he received payment.
‘Sam’ and ‘Audrey’ first came forward, together, to report Shahin to the Metropolitan Police in 2018. They were left in disbelief when, the following year, the Metropolitan Police revealed that they had not referred their cases to the Crown Prosecution Service and would not be taking any further action.
With support from Centre for Women’s Justice, ‘Sam’ and ‘Audrey’ refused to accept this outcome, and continued to question what steps the police were taking to put a stop to Shahin’s crimes. It was not until 2021 that Shahin was finally prosecuted in connection with his repeat offending, by which time the Metropolitan Police had identified a number of his other victims. Since then, ‘Sam’ and ‘Audrey’ have had to wait a further two years for the outcome of the trial.
It is now clear to ‘Sam’ and ‘Audrey’ that Shahin continued to harm other women long after they came forward. At his Sentencing, the court heard how Shahin pursued a ‘campaign of rape’ over several years, having established a ‘system’ by which he would lure women with the offer of legitimate, non-sexual work, so that he could have a constant supply of women to sexually abuse and exploit.
On behalf of the Crown, Prosecution Counsel Paul Douglass told the court that Shahin had evidently assumed his victims would feel inhibited from reporting what he had done – or that if they did report him to the police, they would not be believed. ‘It is a matter of enormous regret’, said Mr Douglass, ‘that to an extent he was right’ – as evidenced by the numerous police decisions to take no further action against Mr Shahin after his victims initially came forward.
In total Shahin was convicted of 8 offences of rape against 4 different women, as well as several offences involving sexual assault and assault by penetration. He has also been convicted of controlling prostitution for his personal gain.
In a Victim Impact Statement read, in person’, by ‘Audrey’, she told the Defendant: ‘Shahin, you cannot undo the trauma you caused me. This is my life sentence. I will carry it to my grave.’
In a Victim Impact Statement read, in person, by ‘Sam’, she said: ‘I hope Shahin will grow old, bitter and alone in his cell with the voices of all those women (Sisters, Daughters) he saw as collateral ringing in his ears, taking back their power and their truth’.
Responding to the sentence imposed, ‘Audrey’ said: ‘I’m very happy with the result after such a long a battle. I believe that justice has finally been served. It feels like it’s taken such a long time to be understood.’
‘Sam’ said: ‘I’m really pleased, but it feels surreal too. I appreciated hearing the judge apologise to us and her recognition of the victims’ commitment and strength. It was emotional for me. It was good to hear someone acknowledge the failings that happened here, and to reassure the victims in the room that there was nothing to be ashamed of. For any other women who come forward, you are most certainly not alone.’
Her Honour Justice Alison Levitt concluded that a custodial sentence of 31 years was necessary to reflect the very significant harm that Shahin had caused and the ‘contempt’ that he had shown for his victims. She described Shahin as a ‘parasite’ who preyed on vulnerable women and systematically manipulated everyone around him.
In her Sentencing Remarks, the Judge thanked all of the women who had testified against Shahin for their ‘enormous courage, dignity and determination’. She added that she wanted to ‘apologise’ to all of them ‘on behalf of the criminal justice system’ for the length of time that it had taken to bring Shahin to justice, noting that this had not only contributed to the suffering of the victims who came forward, but also enabled Shahin to rape more women. Later, she said to ‘Sam’ that she was ‘truly sorry’ for ‘the police’s initial refusal to take this investigation forward’.
Although this trial focused exclusively on offences reported to the police within the past 5 years, a public decision made by the Upper Immigration Tribunal reveals that as of 2015 Shahin had already been reported to the Metropolitan Police for a total of 11 offences – including alleged offences of rape, sexual assault and controlling prostitution. As the Upper Immigration Tribunal noted, none of these allegations recorded by the Metropolitan Police resulted in a prosecution. Nonetheless, the Home Office is said to have refused Shahin leave to remain in the UK based on the allegations made about his conduct, noting that he was ‘well-known’ for running an escort agency called Soulmate Escorts that also offered sexual services.
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