Arrest warrant issued for man who raped sleeping student after he failed to turn up to court

An arrest warrant has been issued for a rapist who failed to appear in court for the final day of his trial.

Omed Hassan was convicted of raping a sleeping student in the university town of St Andrews in his absence at the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday.

The 26-year-old from Perth had denied assaulting the woman while she was asleep and incapable of consenting at an address in the Fife town on February 3, 2023.

He told the court through a Kurdish interpreter that he disputed that the woman fell asleep and said: “I was having sex with her while she was awake.”

The court heard that the victim woke up to find Hassan having sex with her, and others saw her subsequent upset and distress.

He denied that he phoned the police after the incident to get his version in first and maintained it was because he was frightened of the victim’s friends.

They had earlier been out at pubs and Hassan maintained that they were getting on very well and he was invited back to the address.

Hassan, who has been on bail since February last year, failed to appear at the High Court and the trial judge held that it was in the interests of justice for the trial to proceed in the absence of the accused.

The jury returned their guilty verdict in a courtroom where the dock was empty and Lord Ericht told them: “You will understand why we had a later start this morning because the accused did not turn up.”

He said a warrant was issued for Hassan’s arrest, and he deferred sentence for preparing a background report.

Hassan was placed on the sex offenders’ register.