07 Mar 2025
Failed asylum seeker who was not deported despite repeated crimes against women is jailed after raping a sex worker
A failed asylum seeker who remained at large in Britain despite repeated crimes against women and first offending 17 years ago has been jailed after raping a sex worker – admitting having ‘evil sex’ with her.
Iranian national Salih Mahmoudi, 42, struck in the early hours of the morning on August 21, 2023.
His victim – who he picked up in Liverpool – thought he was taking her to an apartment but, instead, he led her to a derelict car park the city centre.
After knocking her to the ground, he ripped off her leggings and raped her.
The woman managed to flee, naked from the waist down, and despite him pursuing her she was able to ring police from a phone box.
Now Mahmoudi has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years with a judge branding him a ‘dangerous offender’ – and is finally set for deportation on completion of his sentence.
Liverpool Crown Court heard he had previous convictions dating back to 2008, when he was convicted of disorderly behaviour involving exposing himself to three women in a park. In 2019 and 2021, he was twice sentenced for harassing a woman, while in April 2024, Mohammed was convicted of assault causing actual bodily harm after punching a man in the street as he was walking along with a woman.
Despite the crimes and having failed in his bid for asylum, Mahmoudi remained in Britain.
Robert Wyn Jones, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court Mahmoudi – who lived in asylum seekers’ housing in Edge Hill, Liverpool, initially denied the latest attack. But Mr Wyn Jones added that when told of DNA evidence linking him to the crime, he ‘accepted having what he called evil sex with her’.
Judge Anil Murray jailed Mahmoudi for seven and a half years with an extended four-year licence after ruling that he is a dangerous offender. He said that Mahmoudi, who has not expressed any remorse, had lured the vulnerable victim by showing her cash.
He pointed out that his previous convictions involving exposing himself to three women and harassment were ‘worrying’ and showed a pattern of offending against women.Judge Murray ordered Mahmoudi to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for life and imposed a 15-year restraining order.
Defence barrister Peter Killen said that the defendant had been living a chaotic lifestyle at the time of the attack nearly 19 months ago.
If he is not deported back to Iran after his release, he will live with his brother in Liverpool, Mr Killen said.
Salih Mahmoudi, 42 from Kurdistan was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years imprisonment for raping a sex worker in a derelict car park in Liverpool in January 2023. The woman believed that that he was going to take her to his flat, but he instead led her to the car park where he attacked her. She eventually managed to break free and ran away wearing only her top. The court heard that he was a married father of two who two days after the attack, returned to the scene of his crime. The woman