Sunderland rapist and pizza shop boss has car seized after string of sex attacks

Pizza shop boss Haval Omer prowled the streets and clubs at night looking for females to have sex with and then attacked them in his car or at his home.

The 32-year-old had told one of his victims he would take her to hospital after he found her distressed in the street but "abducted" her in his car and raped her.

He plied another woman with drink after "pawing" at her in a club then subjected her to a sickening sex assault ordeal.

A third victim, whose drink had been spiked in a nightclub, was "tricked" into getting into Omer's car, taken to his home and raped.

Newcastle Crown Court heard Omer, who had been due to get married, had as "sense of entitlement" and struggled to understand what he has done wrong.

Omer, of Eden Vale, Sunderland, was convicted of three offences of rape, on two of the women, and four of sexual assault after a trial.

Last month, Judge Penny Moreland branded the serial offender "dangerous" and sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment, with an eight year extension period and lifelong sex offender registration.

The judge said Omer's behaviour was "sinister" and added: "He doesn't actually think he has done anything wrong."

Judge Moreland told Omer: "You pose a high risk to members of the public, particularly females.

"I form the view you are dangerous."

Omer was back in court today MON, via video link to prison, where prosecutors made an application to seize his car, which is already in police custody.

Prosecutor Adam Walker made the application under the Power of Criminal Courts Sentencing Act on the basis the vehicle was used to "facilitate" Omer's attacks.

Mr Walker told the court: "That car is in the possession of the police and they wish to dispose of it.

"In order to do so, they need a deprivation order."

Peter Schofield, defending, said Omer "does not resist" the prosecution application and added: "He understands, clearly, it does need to be disposed of."

Judge Moreland told Omer: "I have made the deprivation order."

The court heard Omer's first victim was attacked in 2015 after she had taken an overdose of drugs and had wandered into the road while Omer was parked nearby.

A recording of a 999 call made by the woman's friend captured him offering to give her a lift to hospital for help.

Omer was parked up nearby, "looking for girls", and raped her in his car.

The woman was found by the police, unconscious, in Omer's home the next day.

While under investigation for that offence, Omer targeted his second victim, who was on a night out in April 2016.

CCTV footage from a nightclub showed him "pawing" at the young woman, then "picking up her glass and encouraging her to drink".

She was repeatedly sexually assaulted after he got her into his car.

Omer targeted his third victim, whose drink was spiked, during another city night out three months later.

The court heard Omer had "gone out looking for someone to have sex with" and had got the victim into his car once she was "incapable".

The court heard the attacks had a devastating impact on all three victims.

One woman said she is "haunted" by what happened and said the ordeal has "messed her life up".

Another said: "How can anyone do something so vile and crude."

The women said they feared their ordeals will effect the rest of their lives.

The court heard Omer arrived in the UK as an asylum seeker in 2002, from Iraq and set up his business in the city.

Mr Schofield said at the last hearing: "He does, through me, recognise the seriousness of all of these offences.

"He apologises and is contrite for the distress that has been occasioned to everyone."