A ‘psychopath’ rapist has been given a rare life sentence after the judge was nearly moved to tears by a rape-survivor’s heart-breaking victim impact statement. Musaddaq Hoque, 37, will serve a minimum of 14 years and eight months after he was convicted of five counts of rape against two women after a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court last month.
Judge Ross Cohen looked visibly emotional as one of Hoque’s victims bravely stood up in court to face her abuser, who appeared via video link from prison. “I was not just violated. I was broken in a way that can’t be undone. The fear, the helplessness, the shame, all still live with me,” she said, “I am no longer able to trust people. I am afraid of letting someone in who will destroy me again.”
“It took away something from me that can never be returned. I hope the court understands this was not just a moment but a life sentence. You are a psychopath. A Jekyll and Hyde who can change your personality with the flick of a switch. Hopefully you will learn putting your hands on a woman should not cross your mind.”
The other victim-survivor described Hoque’s ‘repeated emotional, physical, sexual, and financial abuse’ which left her ‘walking on eggshells’ and still suffering flash backs and panic attacks.
Calling out Hoque’s targeting of a vulnerable divorced woman and her £30,000 savings, Judge Cohen said: “As a Bengali man you knew the value of her gold she had been given as a dowry.”
Hoque, formerly of St Luke’s Road in Notting Hill, has been in prison since 2021 when he was remanded ahead of a separate trial at Southwark Crown Court. MyLondon previously reported how the thug was given a 10 year extended sentence for terrorising a victim for 15 years, burning her with a cigarette and threatening her with acid. Two juries failed to reach a verdict on a count of oral rape.
In June this year Hoque returned to court, where two more women gave evidence against him. This time jurors saw through his lies, convicting him on the rape counts, as well as GBH, threats to kill, and controlling and coercive behaviour.
Hoque’s previous offences include battering and harassing another female partner, working as a drug dealer in 2011, deliberately running over a cyclist in 2014, assaulting another female partner in 2018, and then the convictions that saw him sentenced in 2023.
This track record left Judge Cohen with little option but to engage a Section 285 life sentence, having considered the seriousness of the crimes, the nature of his previous, the level of danger, and whether there were any alternatives. The judge was particularly concerned that Hoque had raped and abused both women while serving a suspended sentence for attacking a former partner in 2018.
During the trial, jurors heard how Hoque would make threats to: stamp on the pregnant women’s stomachs, throw them down the stairs, and perform coat hanger abortions. In one particularly disturbing incident, Hoque poked a kitchen knife into the victim’s pregnant stomach and told her he would cut the baby out. Terrified he would do it, she grabbed the knife and sliced her hand open.
On Hoque’s previous, the judge said: “Using violence. Threatening violence. Or being abusive or controlling towards women. You seek to demand control and subjugate women with such means. You threaten extreme violence with threats to women with fire, acid, and weapons,” adding in relation to one former girlfriend: “You threatened to put a gun down her throat.”
Judge Cohen said Hoque had been a danger to women for more than 13 years, and would continue to do so while he maintained his innocence. “All you have demonstrated towards them is callous indifference. You have no insight into your offending and repeatedly lied to the jury,” he added. Judge Cohen concluded an extended sentence was not a suitable alternative to a life sentence in this case.
The sentence means Hoque will not go before the parole board until he has complete the minimum sentence. Only then will the board decide if he is ready for release, and any crime committed on license will see him immediately returned to prison for life.
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