A rapist who held a knife to his victim’s throat and warned she “wouldn’t be heard” if she screamed has been convicted in his absence after being accidentally released from prison and fleeing to Bosnia.
Bernadin Dedic, 48, a businessman from Ealing, west London, was remanded in custody last year charged with four counts of rape, two of sexual assault by penetration, causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, threatening a person with a knife, and making a threat to kill. But in February, a court official wrongly told HMP Wormwood Scrubs that he had been granted bail, and Dedic was set free. Within hours, he had boarded a Eurostar and returned to his native Bosnia.
“Rapist Bernadin Dedic, mistakenly freed from Wormwood Scrubs, fled to Bosnia and was convicted in his absence.”
The trial went ahead this month at Isleworth Crown Court without him. Dedic offered a litany of excuses for not returning, including claims of a heart attack and a skiing accident. On Tuesday, a jury convicted him on all nine counts.
Prosecutor Simon Sandford told the court that Dedic had consumed as much as four bottles of red wine and snorted lines of cocaine before luring the woman to his basement, after she had turned down his offer of “no strings attached” sex. “When downstairs, she turned towards the stairs and saw him, holding a red-handled oriental kitchen knife,” Sandford said. “He stepped towards her, took hold of her and said he would kill her and then kill himself. She was extremely frightened but tried to calm him down. He said if she screamed, she wouldn’t be heard.”
Dedic slapped the woman, told her to “shut up”, used the knife to cut off her sports bra and top, then ordered her to remove the rest of her clothing. The ordeal lasted several hours, during which he raped and sexually assaulted her repeatedly. “She was terrified and was prepared to do whatever he said,” the prosecutor added.
Dedic, who was represented in court by a leading barrister, sent messages saying he wanted to return but claimed he was struggling to obtain a visa. If he fails to appear for sentencing, UK authorities are expected to begin extradition proceedings to bring him back to serve what the court described as an inevitable lengthy jail term.