SNS GroupA man attacked and repeatedly raped a vulnerable teenager in a city centre lane in the early hours of the morning.
Sidia Jobe, 33, assaulted the victim after she had been out drinking and was intoxicated and incapable of consenting.
During the attack, Jobe seized her by the body and carried her, pushed her against a wall, removed her underwear and subjected her to rape at Hill Street North Lane, in Edinburgh on May 20 in 2024.
Jobe had denied committing the crime and claimed the 17-year-old girl “wasn’t really drunk”, but was found guilty of the offence.
Advocate depute Naomei Warner maintained that he had taken advantage of a significantly younger girl, who was vulnerable through her intoxication.
The court heard that a resident in the lane was woken by his partner who was concerned by noises she heard outside.
He said he looked at CCTV and could see there had been a man and a woman in the lane. He later watched the footage again and became “quite concerned” and contacted police.
He told the court: “What I saw was a woman who was quite clearly intoxicated and I saw a man who looked to be like he was trying to have intercourse with her.”
Footage was shown to a jury at Jobe’s trial and the witness said it showed him carrying a woman down the street before she was seen running.
He said: “To me it looks like the woman is trying to get away from the man.”
The witness said it appeared at one stage that she was trying to press a doorbell at a property.
Shown further footage he said: “To me that looks like she could barely stand up and he is holding her up and he was trying to have intercourse with her.”
Judge Norman McFadyen KC told jurors after the verdict that it was an “anxious case”.
He said: “This has been a particularly difficult case, not least because you have had to watch on several occasions some quite distressing footage.”
Jobe, who was on bail, was remanded in custody while a background report is prepared on him ahead of sentencing. He was placed on the sex offenders’ register.
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