Man who choked and assaulted sex worker in Vancouver park gets 4 1/2 years
Credit to Author: Keith Fraser| Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2019 23:05:03 +0000
A man who choked and sexually assaulted a sex-trade worker in a Vancouver park has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison.
Ezaz Ahmed Razak, 25, was found guilty in May of sexual assault causing bodily harm, robbery, attempt to choke to enable the robbery and sexual assault, unlawful confinement and uttering a threat against the sex-trade worker, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban.
In the early morning hours of Sept. 2, 2017, Razak, who was 23 at the time of the offences, had consensual sex with the sex-trade worker, who is only identified in a ruling by the initials M.F., in the park.
Afterward, Razak attacked M.F., choking her throat from behind and demanding that the sex continue. He forced her to perform various sexual acts, including unprotected intercourse, choking her to the point where she had difficulty breathing.
Razor directed degrading and demeaning verbal attacks toward M.F. during the assault and issued threats of further violence.
“She was made to kneel down and ‘pray to her God’ while Mr. Razak told her that he could kill her or have her killed,” noted B.C. Supreme Court Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick in her sentencing ruling.
The violent attack only came to an end when the victim managed to escape from Razak and run to a nearby home. She suffered injuries to her shoulders, upper back, arms and knees, including scrapes and bruises.
Although M.F. didn’t provide a victim impact statement, during the trial she said she still has flashbacks and suffers depressed anxiety. She attributed three suicide attempts to the trauma arising from the attack.
The judge heard that several months before the attack an “extremely intoxicated” Razak had been involved in a bloody altercation with his brother that did not result in charges.
Several months after the attack on M.F., and while on bail on those charges, he attacked a woman with whom he’d had a relationship, sexually assaulting her and uttering a threat. He is to be sentenced for those offences in provincial court in November.
In her ruling, Fitzpatrick said that the aggravating factors in the attack on the sex-trade worker were that it was a “serious and violent” attack and a violation of M.F.’s personal integrity. Other aggravating factors included that many of Razak’s actions and demands were designed to humiliate and degrade her, and that the attack was on a vulnerable sex-trade worker.
“The circumstances relating to M.F. are another example of a sex-trade worker being attacked late at night in an area where she was alone and extremely vulnerable to this type of violent behaviour,” the judge said.