Man is cleared of attempted rape (From Asian Image)

Man is cleared of attempted rape

10:01am Thursday 8th November 2007

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The man has been cleared of trying to rape a young woman in her bedsit.

Ebrahim Bismillah, 24, of Great Horton, Bradford, said he tripped in his slippers and accidentally fell on the 22-year-old while asking for a cigarette.

He was acquitted by a jury at Bradford Crown Court yesterday of attempted rape and an alternative charge of sexual assault.

Bismillah, who came to the UK from South Africa in 2003, told the court he attended an Islamic school and had had no sex education.

He had never had a sexual relationship with a woman and could not find a girlfriend in Bradford.

Bismillah told the jury he walked into the woman's room when she was sleeping because he wanted a cigarette.

He nudged her awake and she started screaming loudly.

He covered her mouth because he was worried the neighbours would complain about the noise. He said he made no sexual attack on the woman but slipped on the carpet in wet slippers and ended up on top of her.

He denied touching the woman's thigh under the duvet before leaving the room.

Bismillah conceded he went into the woman's room at the wrong time.

By Jenny Loweth

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