Indian-origin man convicted of raping woman in UK

London: An Indian-origin man in the UK has been convicted of brutally raping a woman after repeatedly attacking her with a brick.

39-year-old Hardeep Sandhu was convicted by the Derby Crown Court after the DNA collected from the crime scene in May, 2013 matched with the samples he had given a year later after being arrested for drunken and disorderly behaviour.

Sandhu of Curzon Lane, Alvaston hit the woman, who was working as a prostitute at the time, with a brick, repeatedly punched her and raped her in a garden at the back of Hartington Street, Normanton, in May 2013, the Derby Telegraph reported.

Richard Thatcher, prosecuting, told the jury: "He attacked her ? punching her repeatedly to the face, striking her with a brick, knocking her unconscious for a period of time and, in the midst of the violent attack, raping her."

The attack lasted for about two hours after which Sandhu fled. As the woman left the scene, she met a couple who helped her and called the police.

Scenes-of-crimes officers had obtained DNA samples from the garden. However, the identity of the offender was not given out.

In October 2014, Sandhu was arrested for drunken and disorderly behaviour, for which he was required to give a DNA sample. This matched the DNA samples collected from the scene of the May 2013 attack.

Thatcher told jurors that Sandhu gave a prepared statement in which he said he used prostitutes but denied ever raping anybody and said he did not know what he had been doing on that date.