A taxi driver rapist who attacked a woman and a 15-year-old girl in 2007, but escaped capture for 10 years, finally faced officers in a dramatic episode of 24 Hours in Police Custody.
Last night’s Channel 4 programme showed footage of Shipu Ahmed, then 36, of Luton, being questioned after finally being arrested in September 2017.
Back in 2007, police had collected DNA evidence from the scenes of both rapes and knew they were connected, but had never been able to match them to a suspect.
However, when Ahmed was swabbed for DNA after being reported for a domestic incident, police linked him to the attacks and brought him in for questioning – only for Ahmed to swear on his daughter’s life that both incidents were consensual.
Referring to one of the victims, he said: ‘Only she knows, I know, and God knows what happened,’ before claiming that ‘an English guy wouldn’t have to go through this’.
Detective Ginnette Amico told him: ‘I think you weren’t having much sex at the time. By your own admission, you weren’t very sexually experienced and you saw drunk, alone females as an easy target.
Detective Ginnette Amico and DC Jon Wheeler were filmed questioning rape suspect Shipu Ahmed in last night’s episode of 24 Hours in Police Custody on Channel 4
DC Jon Wheeler added: You’ve been very lucky for the past 10 years that you’ve never been arrested and your DNA has never been obtained. It must have been a real shock this morning was it?’
Speaking of her determination to charge the perpetrator, Detective Amico said: ‘Behind every unsolved rape case there will be a victim who has not received justice. It’s my job to not leave any stone unturned.
‘I see myself as a protector of victims, and the two victims have had to carry on their lives with the scars he has created for them.’
Viewers saw Detective Amico watching footage of the victims’ interviews from 2007, as both described being picked up by a taxi driver and offered a lift.
Suspect Shipu Ahmed (pictured) attempted to convince Detective Amico that he’d been falsely accused of rape by two women, and even swore on his daughter’s life that he was innocent
Detective Amico (pictured), who revealed she felt responsible for protecting victims, tracked down one of the women – now in her 30s – and asked her for as much detail as she could recall about the crime, in order to gather enough evidence to charge Shipu Ahmed
The first, a 15-year-old girl, was picked up and driven on a route she didn’t know, before Ahmed stopped in a car park, pushed her to the ground and committed the rape.
The second, a 22-year-old, got into Ahmed’s tax with a male companion.
However, when the man she was with got out of the car to pick up something from his house, Ahmed drove off and raped her.
Despite the new DNA evidence, however, officers found that reopening a cold case had its challenges, and they were left frustrated by a wall of silence when they knocked on doors and asked questions.
‘What they’ve got to realise is that if it was their mum or their sister, then they’d want people to say something,’ Detective Amico explained.
During the hour-and-a-half episode, police were able to track down the older of the two victims, now in her thirties, and listened as she tried to recall as much detail about the attack as she could.
With only 24 hours to charge Ahmed, officers had to be sure that they had all the evidence necessary.
Detective Ginnette Amico (pictured) based in Luton, used phone records to track down a man accused of rape, who had been living freely for ten years, on last night’s episode of Channel 4’s 24 Hours In Police Custody
Detective Amico (pictured) concluded that Ahmed saw drunk, lone females as an easy target at a time when he wasn’t having an active sex life
They looked at phone records to identify the time of day that Ahmed would most likely be home in order to take him into custody.
But he was unable to keep his story straight, and was charged with two counts of rape.
In June 2018, Ahmed pleaded not guilty but was convicted at Luton Crown Court and sentenced to 22 years in jail.
Ahmed (pictured) who argued ‘an English guy’ wouldn’t have to face his situation, was eventually found guilty of two counts of rape and sentenced to 22 years in prison