Suicide mother’s rapist watched porn then attacked
AN Iranian immigrant kidnapped and raped a woman who later committed suicide because he was ‘ fired up’ for sex after watching hard- core pornography on the internet.
Mother of one Ceri Linden, 20, took an overdose days after giving an emotional video interview to police naming Masood Mansouri as her attacker.
In a legal first, her evidence was played to a jury – and has now helped convict him from beyond the grave. Mansouri, 33, who runs a chain of car wash franchises, was found guilty of kidnap, rape and sexual assault and was yesterday jailed for 13 years.
Chester Crown Court heard that he left his home ‘fired up’ for sex after two sessions of viewing vile videos on the internet. The second, lasting 50 minutes, ended less than half an hour before the attack last August.
Although the specific nature of the videos was not revealed to the jury, police found evidence he had previously viewed films depicting forced sex or rape on his personal computer.
Last night Miss Linden’s mother, Eleri, told the Daily Mail she had no doubt the pornography spurred Mansouri on to rape her daughter and that she blamed him for her death.
‘I absolutely blame him,’ Mrs Linden, 50, a college support assistant, said. ‘If he had not done what he did she would still be here, she was determined to improve herself for the sake of her daughter. She had made plans to carry on with her studies and go on to university to do bio-medical science.’
Earlier this year the country’s top judge, Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas, told MPs that extreme online pornography was fuelling rape and murder.
Mrs Linden said she supported the Mail’s Block Online Porn campaign, which has backed those calling for internet service providers to block violent and child pornography. ‘He (Mansouri) was watching porn before ( the attack)… without a doubt it does affect some people,’ she added.
Mansouri had been driving around Chester just after midnight on August 10 last year when Miss Linden, who was on a night out and believed he was a taxi driver, flagged down his BMW. When she realised her mistake she texted her friends saying she had been kidnapped and was scared.
Mansouri persuaded her to go into his house in a respectable suburb where he raped her before she managed to escape. Miss Linden, who had a two-year-old daughter, was interviewed by police and told them she ‘felt worthless and help-
‘Worthless and helpless’
less’. Five days later she took a fatal overdose of tablets.
Jailing Mansouri, Judge Raj Shetty told him he would be deported to his home country at the end of his sentence. The court had heard that Mansouri first applied for asylum in Britain ten years ago but was refused and he was only allowed to stay by virtue of marriage. The judge said: ‘There is no evidence Miss Linden took her own life solely because of what you did, but it is obvious the ordeal you put her through was an important factor in her decision.’
After Miss Linden of Mochdre, north Wales, reported the attack Mansouri was arrested but claimed the sex was consensual.
Police seized his computer and found he had viewed hard-core pornographic images and videos twice in the hours before the attack last year. Nicholas Williams, prosecuting, said: ‘Having watched this type of pornography he left in a state of arousal, fired up for a sexual encounter.’
Study of the device also revealed he had watched a clip entitled Forced Sex Porno in July 2013.
The court heard that Miss Linden had been sexually assaulted aged 15 by a man who was later jailed. Six months before her death, the court heard, she was hospitalised nine times after trying to commit suicide.
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