Victim slams passengers who prevented convicted rapist Yaqub Ahmed from being deported

A woman raped by a Somali refugee has told of her anger after a passenger mutiny on a flight prevented the attacker from being deported.

Yaqub Ahmed was one of four men who gang raped the woman in North London when she was just 16.

In October last year, well-meaning travellers on a flight from London Heathrow to Turkey intervened when they discovered Ahmed was being forced to leave the country, having served a jail term for rape.

Faced with a dozen passengers demanding Ahmed was taken off the plane, Home Office officials relented.

But the footage piled on the misery for the 27-year-old victim, who was horrified to see people support the rapist.

One man was heard in a video clip telling Ahmed: “You’re a free man now.”

Speaking to the Mail on Sunday his victim said: “He was in handcuffs, he was being taken out of the country… who are you people to interfere with justice?

“Fair enough you didn’t know the situation, but now I hope you feel proud of yourselves because you stopped something that I have waited for for so long: something that made me feel that little bit safer.”

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The four men were jailed for a combined 35 years following the sex attack in August 2007.

Ahmed remains in the UK, the Mail on Sunday reports, with efforts to deport him continuing and the newspaper reported his detention has cost the taxpayer at least £18,000 to date.

The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said she was lured to a flat in Crouch End, North London, by a youth who claimed her friend was waiting for her after she lost her on a night out.

She said she was held down while the men took turns to rape her during the horrific attack.

Neighbours heard her screams and called police, but all four denied rape, forcing the woman to relive the ordeal at a trial.

Ahmed, then 19, Adnan Mohamud, 19, and Adnan Barud, 21, were all jailed for nine years.

Ondogo Ahmed, 19, was given eight years for conspiracy to rape. He died fighting for ISIS in 2013.

Voicing her fury at those who prevented the deportation, the woman said they clearly thought there had been an injustice because Ahmed was in handcuffs.

But she said: “Those people should have realised it takes a lot to get someone deported, maybe we shouldn’t interfere.

“‘I just didn’t want to see his face again. They applauded and cheered and said, “You’re free man!” It just enraged me.”