The most chilling aspect of the predatory, violent, and dangerous actions of Tayyab Salah Uddin, who raped one woman in Sligo and tried to grab another woman the following night, is that he seems to think he did nothing wrong.
Uddin (31), a native of Pakistan who came to Ireland having already sexually assaulted a woman in Britain, was jailed for 10 years by the Central Criminal Court yesterday for his actions.
According to the Sunday World, Justice Paul McDermott described the rapist as behaving like a predator who was looking for women “who were isolated, alone and in a vulnerable condition”.
[The judge] said he had subjected the first woman to a terrifying ordeal and raped her with some violence before returning to the town centre the following night looking, in his view, for another vulnerable woman to lure into his car.
Mr Justice McDermott said it was an aggravating feature that Uddin sought to trap the two women in this way while presenting himself as someone who just wanted to help.
The judge’s remarks around sentencing were especially revealing – and they speak to the disturbing failures of our refugee system and the huge potential for harm, especially around women’s safety.
He imposed consecutive sentences totalling 10 years and ordered post-release supervision.
He ordered three years post-release supervision, noting that Uddin continues to show no understanding of the wrongful nature of his actions and remains a threats to others.
A man who violently raped a woman and then returned to same town centre the following night to “lure”, in the judge’s words, another vulnerable woman into his car, ‘continues to show no understanding’ that his actions are wrong.
He sounds like a psychopath: lacking conscience or guilt and refusing to acknowledge the harm he caused. The court found that there was a “high-risk of re-offending”.
Uddin will be 41 on his release, at most – with good behaviour he’ll likely get out in 7 years. As journalist Michael Kelly tweeted, he should be deported after his sentence is served.
https://twitter.com/MichaelKellyIC/status/1675977049377234944
There should be no ‘post-release supervision’ – he should be sent back to Pakistan where he originally came from and the authorities there warned that he is a danger to women.
But the real question is why a man with a record as a sex offender was allowed into this country and given refugee status in the first place: allowing him to engage in predatory actions, carry out at least one violent rape, and attempt another abduction.
The court heard the Pakistani claimed asylum in Ireland – and was granted it – because he has an eye condition called ocular albinism which “set him apart” and meant he was “bullied and ostracised”.
While it was claimed Uddin was legally blind, he was able to drive apparently, and also able to spot vulnerable women to rape and imprison.
This is utterly absurd. Clearly the bar is being set ridiculously low if a system which is meant to investigate whether someone is fleeing war or persecution is granting refugee status to someone because they say they are being “bullied”.
It’s further evidence that our asylum system is a farce. Was Uddin coached by one of the many NGOs who are paid millions by the government to facilitate and assist migrants in making his claim?
But far more seriously, who made the decision in 2018 to grant refugee status to this rapist so they could stay in Ireland – and was it known when that decision was made that he had already been convicted of sexual assault in the UK in 2014?
This is an urgent and pressing question because it speaks to the culture and the mindset in the asylum system.
Which is more important, the right of women not to be raped, or the desire to look welcoming and progressive towards supposed refugees? Are there other cases where people claiming asylum despite having criminal records in other jurisdictions were are allowed to stay in the country? Have some of those people gone on to harm, molest or attack people?
And does the whole world think Ireland is a soft touch, governed by idiots who put the safety of their own people aside so they can boast to the world about how welcoming we are?
It goes without saying that the mess that the government has made of the asylum system is also desperately unfair to the many people who come here legally and work hard and contribute to society, and now feel that the public perception of migrants is being understandably skewed by these stories.
The woman raped by Uddin after he had spotted her, isolated and vulnerable during a night out, and got her into his car, had the courage and foresight to make the complaint to the Gardai in Sligo immediately.
So when Uddin used the same car (see how blasé he was about his heinous actions) the next night, he was spotted by Gardaí on surveillance cameras as he approached the second woman.
After being charged, Uddin actually escaped the country but was brought back to Ireland and then held in custody before standing trial. It’s almost unbelievable.
There will be plenty who click their tongues at any comment which highlights cases like these, and assert that there are plenty of Irish men who are violent and carry out sexual assaults. Well yes, that’s the point: why on earth are we then bringing in more? Why are we letting sex offenders with the weakest possible claims for asylum into the country so they can terrorise women.
These predators are laughing at us. They think we are weak and foolish and naïve, and they think, as the court found this week, that there is nothing wrong with their actions.
In the aftermath of the terrible murder of Ashling Murphy, Justice Minister Helen McEntee said that we all have a role to play in protecting women.
Yes Deputy McEntee, as the Minister for Justice, you especially do. As does the Minister for Integration, Roderic O’Gorman, who department seems to be inviting the world here, with some terrible consequences.
So maybe you could both stop the damn virtue-signalling and the empty blather and investigate why a convicted sex offender was granted asylum here and went onto to rape and imprison women in Sligo. Maybe do something, anything, to put a stop to this kind of madness.