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Man who attacked sex worker awaits sentencing for sex assault in Burnaby weeks later

A 25-year-old man who is already in jail for choking, robbing and raping a sex-trade worker at a Vancouver park should get five-and-a-half more years for kidnapping and raping his ex-girlfriend in Burnaby while he was out on bail, according to a Crow
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A 25-year-old man who is already in jail for choking, robbing and raping a sex-trade worker at a Vancouver park should get five-and-a-half more years for kidnapping and raping his ex-girlfriend in Burnaby while he was out on bail, according to a Crown prosecutor.

Ezaz Ahmed Razak was found guilty on May 22 of sexual assault, assault, uttering a threat to cause bodily harm, uttering a threat to damage property and unlawful confinement for incidents involving his former girlfriend, identified in court only as V.N.

The pair had broken up years before, so V.N. said she was shocked when Razak showed up unwanted and uninvited at her Surrey home on Nov. 18, 2017 at 5 a.m., drunk and screaming her name, according to court documents.

Not wanting him to wake her parents, she went down to him and called a taxi.

While she was in the driveway, she reached into her car for a pack of cigarettes, and Razak shoved her into the vehicle and told her to drive.

She complied, she said, because Razak twisted her wrist and threatened to do it again.

V.N. said Razak was angry, and she thought he would kill her.

He eventually told her to drive to a Burnaby address, where he raped her while the two were still in the car.

When she asked why he was doing this to her, Razak said he wanted to “ruin her life.”

At different times during the night, he threatened to burn her house down, burn her, throw her in the trunk of the car and light the car on fire.

“I replay that night in my head every day, and I hope one day I will be able overcome this, and I also hope that one day that Mr. Razak will be remorseful for what he has done and I hope he gets the justice he deserves,” V.N. said in a victim impact statement at a sentencing hearing Friday.

After the assault, V.N. managed to call 911 for help by pretending she was talking to her boss.

When police arrived, she ran from the car.

Razak got out after her with his pants around his ankles and his buttocks showing.

He was arrested.

At trial, Razak denied sexually assaulting V.N., but B.C. Provincial Court Judge Nancy Phillips rejected his testimony as beyond belief, “misleading and contrived” and “highly idealized, lacking in detail, and inconsistent”

She further found it didn’t align with other evidence and didn’t make sense.

Second sentencing

At the sentencing hearing Friday, Crown prosecutor Jenny Machek said Razak should be given a jail sentence of five years and six months.

Among other considerations, she noted Razak had choked, raped and robbed a sex-trade worker in Vancouver just 10 weeks before the attack on V.N.

At one point during that attack, Razak – who had been drunk then too – had made the woman kneel down and “pray to her God” and told her he could kill her or have her killed.

Since Razak wasn’t found guilty of those offences until after the second attack, he was legally a first-time offender during sentencing Friday, but Machek argued the attack on the sex-trade worker spoke to his character and chance of rehabilitation.

Razak’s lawyer, Paul Janzen, however, argued the sentence proposed by Machek – when taken together with the sentence Razak is already serving for the first attack  – would be “crushing.”

He called for a jail sentence in the two- to three-year range.

He noted Razak is still relatively young, that he had been drunk during both sexual assaults.

“Alcohol isn’t an excuse for someone’s behaviour, but when we’re trying to assess what’s going on in his life and how we can best address it, one has to acknowledge that alcohol is an issue in his life – whether he acknowledges it or not.”

Janzen also noted Razak’s childhood had been very unstable: his father was a drug addict, and Razak had been physically and sexually abused at a Muslim boarding school in Chilliwack.

Phillips will deliver her sentencing decision on Oct. 28.