Two men facing lengthy jail sentences for raping teenage boy in city centre department store toilets- Alex Wilson-Fletcher, 42, and Abdelkader El-Janabi, 55, convicted of attacking boy, 14, in Debenhams
- They told him: 'Come with us, you're going to do anything we say'
- Boy tried to run away, but was cornered and directed to men's toilets
- Pair caught after police released their CCTV images in nationwide hunt
- El-Janabi is former Iraqi army intelligence officer who fought in Gulf War
Two men have been found guilty of raping a teenage boy in the toilets of a city centre department store.
Alex Wilson-Fletcher, 42, and former Iraqi army intelligence officer Abdelkader El-Janabi, 55, attacked the 14-year-old victim in the Debenhams store in Manchester on a busy Saturday afternoon last summer.
The boy was in the Arndale Centre at around 5.45pm on June 2 last year when he went to the toilets.
While there he was approached by the defendants and led out of the Arndale Centre and forced to go to nearby Debenhams where he was raped, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Wilson-Fletcher, of Oldham Street, Manchester, and El-Janabi, of Artillery Court, Ardwick, Manchester were today both convicted by a jury of two counts of rape and two counts of sexual touching following a two-week trial.
The pair were tracked down after images from CCTV were circulated by police.
They were remanded into custody by Judge Michael Leeming QC who warned they face substantial jail terms when they are sentenced on June 6.
Earlier in the run-up to the assault at the retail giant's flagship Manchester store, El-Janabi told the victim: 'Come with us, you’re going to do anything we say and if you try to run away we will catch you.'
The boy said he tried to run off, but was caught after being cornered by the two men.
After the assault, he ran out of the four-storey department store and confided to a friend about his ordeal.
Police were called after the boy’s mother found out about the incident.
Eljanabi and Wilson Fletcher were trapped after police issued CCTV of the rapists as part of a nationwide public appeal for help.
It emerged the Iraqi had been seen 'hanging around' the third-floor toilets on numerous occasions by staff and had on one occasion been escorted off the premises.
Wilson-Fletcher handed himself in after seeing his photo on a BBC 'wanted' website and was picked out at an ID parade due to his distinctive lazy eye. The boy was said to have been left 'absolutely devastated' by his ordeal.
The assault began in the early evening of June 2 last year after the boy went to a gentleman’s toilet at Manchester Arndale Centre after leaving a youth club.
As he stood at the urinals, El-Janabi and Wilson-Fletcher began staring at him. Giving evidence by video link, the boy said: 'I left the youth group at 5.45pm.
'I was walking near the Arndale and I needed the toilet. When I went in, some Asian person stood next to me and started staring at me, looking at me up and down.'
The boy said he felt so ‘anxious’ and ‘nervous’ he moved along one urinal for more privacy - but Wilson-Fletcher had already entered the toilets and started eyeing him up on his other side.
The youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, added: 'The Asian person grabbed my arm and said "come with us, you’re going to do anything we say and if you try to run away we will catch you".'
The boy said a cleaner and some other shoppers were present in the toilets while he was threatened and said: 'I started panicking. He mumbled it to me - he said it to me so no-one else could hear.'
The boy said he made a dash for it, but El-Janabi caught up with him, motioning the boy in the direction of the Debenhams store with his paper - with Wilson-Fletcher following closely behind.
'He tapped me with the paper. The white person was behind - if I had ran the opposite way, the white man would have been there', he said.
The court heard that once inside the store, the victim was directed into the lift, they took up to the toilets.
Neil Fryman, prosecuting, said: 'They both went into the male toilets. A short time later, prosecution say, that Mr Wilson-Fletcher went into these toilets at Debenhams.'
The two men then abused the boy before Eljanabi raped him as Wilson-Fletcher looked on. Mr Fryman said: 'The two defendants are in it together. It was a common enterprise. Mr Wilson-Fletcher was in full presence, knowing what was going on, intending it to go on and encouraging it to go on.'
The complainant was examined and a nationwide appeal was launched, with CCTV images of the men. El-Janabi became a suspect after his flat caretaker alerted police after seeing photograph of him in a press release.
Police visited his home in Longsight, Manchester, on August 23, 2012, but there was no answer.
My Fryman said: 'Activity could be seen behind the door but the door wasn’t opened.'
But police swooped the next morning at 7.55am and arrested El-Janabi at his flat, in which officers found DVDs strongly suggesting he had a sexual interest in young men. He was matched to the man in the CCTV footage by facial-mapping experts.
El-Janabi who settled in the UK in 2012 later told police: 'I had nothing to do with this attack. I was not there. I was elsewhere. I didn’t know the complainant. I have no involvement in this whatsoever.'
The court heard he had served in the Iraqi army as a military intelligence officer and fought in the Iran-Iraq war in 1980 and the Gulf War of the early 90s.
He claimed he had been captured and tortured by American soldiers which left him with long standing knee injuries and said he was bedridden at the time of the sexual assault.
Wilson-Fletcher said he had 'no recollection what happened that day', but denied any involvement in an attack.
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