A NEW Year’s Eve party guest has been jailed for raping a 17-year-old girl who had fallen asleep on a sofa.

Enver Kucuk invited himself to the event at a house in Ashburton, driving from his home in Manchester to get there. 

He ended up sleeping in the same room as the victim. She woke up to find him assaulting her and he went on to rape her.

She had been drinking with her friend and gone to sleep on a sofa on one side of the room while other people were still up and about.

Kucuk was allowed to stay and was meant to have slept on a different sofa on the other side of the room but waited until he was alone with the victim and attacked her in the early hours of the morning.

She tried to push him off but he carried on and raped her before she fled upstairs and raised the alarm by waking her friend, who in turn woke her parents. 

Kucuk was thrown out of the house immediately and police were called. He was stopped as he drove through Gloucestershire on his way home.

He claimed the girl was awake and he touched her to see if she was interested in having sex with him and stopped as soon as she said no. 

He claimed he thought she found him attractive because she had been dancing with him earlier.

Lorry driver Kucuk, 51, of Ashton-under-Lyne, denied assault by penetration and rape but was found guilty by a jury at Exeter Crown Court at a trial in March. 

He was jailed for seven years and put on the sex offenders’ register for life by Judge David Evans who told him: ‘Your explanation seemed to be that you felt you were entitled to try it on and see what her reaction was. You were entirely regardless of her wishes.’

During the trial, Miss Heather Hope, prosecuting, said Kucuk was invited to the party on New Year’s Eve 2020 but no-one expected him to travel from Manchester until he turned up at the house in Ashburton.

It meant no arrangements had been made to accommodate him and he ended up sharing a downstairs room. 

The girl had been drinking vodka and lemonade and had been tipsy but not drunk. She was woken at around 5.50 am by Kucuk assaulting and raping her. She managed to get free and went upstairs to seek refuge in her friend’s room before waking parents who ejected Kucuk and called the police.

Mr Lee Bremridge, defending, said Kucuk has lived in Britain for 25 years and has four children aged 13 to 22 and worked for his employers for seven years.

He said Kucuk has a strong work ethic and helped his family in Turkey, who were severely affected by last year’s earthquake. 

He used the four months in prison on remand to take courses in English and Maths and won a Governor’s commendation for working with cancer patients in the prison hospital.