A GUEST who raped a 17-year-old after a New Year’s Eve party in Ashburton has been warned to expect a jail sentence after being found guilty of the sexual assault. 

Enver Kucuk drove to Devon from Manchester to attend the party at a house in the town and ended up sleeping in the same room as the young victim, who was there as a guest of the hosts’ teenage daughter.

She went to bed on one sofa in the early hours of the morning and Kucuk was due to sleep on a second sofa elsewhere in the room but instead joined the girl.

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

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

He claimed the girl was awake and that he touched her to see if she was interested in having sex with him and stopped as soon as she said no. He claimed that he thought she found him attractive because she had been dancing with him earlier in the evening at the party.

Lorry driver Kucuk, 50, of Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, denied assault by penetration and rape but was found guilty by a jury at Exeter Crown Court. 

He was remanded in custody by Judge David Evans who told him: ‘You have been convicted by unanimous verdicts of two very serious offences for which there will be a sentence of immediate and substantial imprisonment.’ 

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

It meant that no arrangements had been made to put him up and so he ended up sharing a room with a friend of the hosts’ daughter. There were two sofas and the family went to bed after the party, leaving the girl asleep on one and Kucuk awake on the other. 

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 touching her. She managed to get free and went upstairs to seek refuge in her friend’s room.

The two teenagers then woke the parents, who ejected Kucuk and called the police, leading to his arrest. 

Kucuk said: ‘I thought she might be interested in me. I wanted to see her reaction. I wish I had never done it. I wish I never put myself in this situation. I touched her once and for five seconds. I did not rape her.

‘I just touched her. She was looking at me and she jumped up and said no and ran upstairs. I understood that no meant no.’

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