Bassingbourn Libyan soldiers jailed for 12 years each for the rape a man in October.

The two men have been found guilty of rape and aiding and abetting rape.

The two men, Moktar Ali Saad Mahmoud and Ibrahim Abugtila, aged 33 and 23 respectively were training at Bassingbourn Barracks when they carried out this attack on a man in his 20s. 

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was attacked on the Christ’s Pieces in the opening hours of 26th October. The assault was one of a series of sex attacks that took place in October of last year. The jury was told by the prosecution that each of the defendants pair took it in turns to rape him whilst the other held the victim down “initially not using too much force and later more forcefully, kept him going in the direction they wanted him to go.”

The victim was according to the Prosecutor, John Farmer, “in no fit state one way or another to consent” after having drunk a “formidable” amount of alcohol at a wedding party.

The defence argued that Moktar and Ibrahim did engage in sex with the man, but asserted that the man was consenting. 

The victim described the two men as “animals” who “weren’t human” and “don’t deserve to live”.

The two men were prosecuted at Cambridge Crown Court after having been charged early last November. CCTV images from the night show Mokata and Ibrahim both harassing women in the city centre and roaming the streets after the attack in Christ’s Pieces.                 

Moktar and Ibrahim were part of up to 2,000 soldiers who had been scheduled to train at the barracks. The programme was intended to provide support for the Libyan government’s efforts to increase the stability of the region in the aftermath of Gaddafi’s regime collapse of 2011.

When asked about the lack of discipline displayed by the solider in Prime Ministers’ Questions in November of last year, David Cameron described the events as “completely unacceptable”.

This incident, in conjunction with other infractions of conduct by the cadets led to the scrapping of the programme in November.

@EllieOlcott