Sunderland student sex attacker who plied teenage victims with MDMA is convicted of rape

Omar Sharif, who was named after the film icon, drove a Mercedes sports car with personalised plate and had been commended for charity work, ensnared vulnerable women, who were all in their late teens, with free drugs so he could attack them.After a trial at Newcastle Crown court jurors found the 23-year-old, who is a nephew of murdered takeaway boss Tipu Sultan, guilty of raping three women, sexually assaulting a fourth, supplying MDMA to the victims and an offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act.He admitted charges of perverting justice and perjury in relation to lies he told about being at the scene of his uncle's murder, while giving evidence at a previous trial.

Judge Penny Moreland said the former Northumbria University undergraduate, who was on track for a first class degree in Geography, may now be considered "dangerous" and could face an extended prison sentence.The judge said: "The verdicts returned by the jury will require me to consider the dangerousness provisions."Judge Moreland remanded him in custody.The 23-year-old will be sentenced next month, along with his brother Amer Sharif, 20, a Sunderland University student who tried to convince a woman to make a false statement to police in a bid to get his sibling out of trouble and was found guilty of perverting the course of justice.Prosecutor Gavin Doig told the court Omar Sharif was "no ordinary student" and added: "He is still only 23. His youth, however, has not prevented him, we say, from ensnaring vulnerable young women with free drugs, or continuing to supply them even when they were in debt to him, so as to abuse them sexually."The court heard Sharif sexually assaulted one woman in student accommodation in Sunderland after plying her with so much MDMA that she was "out of it".The victim had gone into a student bedroom at the site, where Sharif "encouraged" her to take lines of MDMA so she was "rendered vulnerable to him".The court heard she was then pinned down onto a bed and sexually assaulted, while she repeatedly told him "no", before she managed to fight him off.Sharif raped a second woman, who he gave MDMA to in a room at a hotel in Sunderland and attacked her again at his home.The woman told detectives she had never tried MDMA before she went to the hotel room and added: "I was just sitting there and he asked if I wanted a line."I said no at first."The victim added: "I was going to go with her then she pushed me on the bed. I was stood up and he just pushed me on the bed."The teenager said she thinks nothing was said during the rape attack but added: "I can't really remember, I was off my face."She told detectives she held her hands over her face during the ordeal and that she saw Sharif, who she was "frightened of" after the attack, to get more drugs.He raped her for a second time when she visited him at his home to get a supply.The court heard Sharif raped another victim after giving her drugs at a house she was looking after.The woman told police the details of the attack were "very hazy" but that she was warned afterwards "you mustn't tell anyone".A fourth woman was raped in Sharif's car at a seafront car park.She told detectives she was "frightened" of Sharif, who she owed a drug debt to but was still given a supply from.Sharif was found not guilty of two further rape charges in relation to the same woman.Sharif denied attacking all four women during two trials, which meant his victims had to undergo the ordeal of reliving their horrifying experiences in court, twice.During the first trial, Sharif made up "cold blooded" lies about his murdered uncle Tipu Sultan, who was shot at his takeaway shop in South Shields, dying in his arms so he could gain sympathy from a jury and "wriggle out of" the serious sex and drugs charges he faced.He gave "powerful", but fake, evidence at his trial last year about cradling the 32-year-old, after he was shot and begging "please don't die" as his life ebbed away.He claimed his own life took a "downward spiral" after his traumatic involvement in the tragedy and that his life descended into drug taking and criminal accusations being made against him.The case last year ended before the jury could return any verdicts.Sharif admitted an offence of perjury in relation to the "lies, lies, lies" he told at the last trial.The brothers, both of Brunton Terrace, Sunderland, will be sentenced on December 6.Amer Sharif has been given bail in the meantime but Judge Moreland warned: "An immediate custodial sentence is usually the result of a conviction for perverting the course of justice."Luke Richardson, 21, of Ponden Hill, Sunderland, and Georgi Karaboykov, 35, of Horatio Street, Sunderland, were both found not guilty of one offence sexual assault and one of rape, all on the same woman at a party, where Sharif had supplied drugs.Richardson had told jurors the sexual encounter he had with the women was the "biggest mistake" of his life and that the woman fully consented to ex.Karaboykov said he had been "invited" by the woman to engage in sexual activity with her, and that what happened between them was consensual but did not involve full sex.Milagros Sanchez's, 25, of Chester Road, Sunderland, was found not guilty of facilitating sexual exploitation.