November 2013: One of two men jailed for raping a 14-year-old boy in the toilet of a central Manchester department store has had his prison sentence cut Click HERE for BBC news update June 2013 Child rapists jailed for 15 years after Debenhams attack on 14 year old boy in Manchester A former intelligence officer in Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime has been jailed for 15 years along with a law firm worker for raping a teenage boy in the toilets of a department store in Manchester. Abdelkader El-Janabi, 55, and Alex Wilson-Fletcher, 42, abducted their 14-year-old victim in the Arndale Centre on a busy Saturday afternoon last summer. They marched him to the toilets of a nearby Debenhams store where the “sustained attack” on him took place. Wilson-Fletcher, of Oldham Street, Manchester, and El-Janabi, of Artillery Court, Ardwick, Manchester, were convicted by a jury of two counts of rape and two counts of sexual assault following a nine-day trial in April. The pair were tracked down after images from CCTV were circulated around the UK by police. Sentencing them at Manchester Crown Court, Judge Michael Leeming QC told them: “In all probability, what you did to him in his formative years will stay with him. “Neither of you thought of that at the time. You were more concerned with your own sexual gratification.” The judge heard the boy was heading home by himself in Manchester city centre on June 2 last year, when he decided to use the toilets in the Arndale Centre, despite being wary of public conveniences. This is where El-Janabi grabbed the teenager by the arm and led him out with Wilson-Fletcher following. The court heard the boy was told: “Come with us. Do what we say. If you try to run we’ll get you.” The judge said: “(The victim) did not want to accompany either of you but he felt he had no choice.” Abdelkader El-Janabi, born 1/6/1957, of Artillery Court, Ardwick He said El-Janabi knew the Debenhams toilets well and had been caught loitering there in the past by shop staff who had ejected him from the store. El-Janabi was the one who physically raped the teenager, the court was told, but Wilson-Fletcher was convicted of taking part in a joint enterprise by the jury. Judge Leeming told Wilson-Fletcher he was “at least a look-out” and encouraged the other defendant. He said he did not see any distinction between the two men in terms of setting an appropriate prison term. The court heard the boy was terrified that the pair would follow him once he broke free from them and he walked six and a half miles to a friend’s house because he was too scared to get on a bus. The judge also said he had read a impact statement from the young victim which described how he took an overdose of pills and alcohol a few months after the attack which was a “cry for help”. He said the teenager, who is now 15, suffers from depression and panic attacks and has difficulty sleeping. The judge said the boy is receiving counselling and is expected to do so for some time. He said the case was an illustration of how this kind of attack can lead to “long lasting psychological harm”. Neither of the defendants have any previous convictions and the judge described them as “mature, intelligent men”. He said El-Janabi had been an intelligence officer in Saddam’s regime but was now a British citizen. He said he fought in the Iraqi army in both the Iran-Iraq War and the First Gulf War. The court heard he has knee problems he claims was caused by American troops while he was a prisoner of war. The jury rejected El-Janabi’s claim he was in bed, suffering from knee problems, when the attack on the boy took place. It also rejected Wilson-Fletcher’s claim he was in the toilet at the time of the attack but had nothing to do with the incident. The judge said Wilson-Fletcher had a good job in a Liverpool law firm at the time he was arrested. The court heard both men continue to claim they are innocent and Judge Leeming said El-Janabi had not shown “any remorse, empathy or insight”. April 2013 Two men facing lengthy jail sentences for raping teenage boy in city centre department store toilets Facing jail: Former Iraqi army intelligence officer Abdelkader El-Janabi, 55, (right) and Alex Wilson-Fletcher, 42, (left) Alex Wilson-Fletcher and Abdelkader El-Janabi convicted of attacking boy Told 14-year-old: ‘Come with us, you’re going to do anything we say’ Boy tried to run away, but was cornered and directed to men’s toilets Pair caught after police released their CCTV images in nationwide hunt El-Janabi is former Iraqi army intelligence officer who fought in Gulf War Two men have been found guilty of raping a teenage boy in the toilets of a city centre department store. Alex Wilson-Fletcher, 42, and former Iraqi army intelligence officer Abdelkader El-Janabi, 55, attacked the 14-year-old victim in the Debenhams store in Manchester on a busy Saturday afternoon last summer. The boy was in the Arndale Centre at around 5.45pm on June 2 last year when he went to the toilets. While there he was approached by the defendants and led out of the Arndale Centre and forced to go to nearby Debenhams where he was raped, Manchester Crown Court heard. Wilson-Fletcher, of Oldham Street, Manchester, and El-Janabi, of Artillery Court, Ardwick, Manchester were today both convicted by a jury of two counts of rape and two counts of sexual touching following a two-week trial. The pair were tracked down after images from CCTV were circulated by police. They were remanded into custody by Judge Michael Leeming QC who warned they face substantial jail terms when they are sentenced on June 6. Earlier in the run-up to the assault at the retail giant’s flagship Manchester store, El-Janabi told the victim: ‘Come with us, you’re going to do anything we say and if you try to run away we will catch you.’ The boy said he tried to run off, but was caught after being cornered by the two men. After the assault, he ran out of the four-storey department store and confided to a friend about his ordeal. Police were called after the boy’s mother found out about the incident. Eljanabi and Wilson Fletcher were trapped after police issued CCTV of the rapists as part of a nationwide public appeal for help. It emerged the Iraqi had been seen ‘hanging around’ the third-floor toilets on numerous occasions by staff and had on one occasion been escorted off the premises. Wilson-Fletcher handed himself in after seeing his photo on a BBC ‘wanted’ website and was picked out at an ID parade due to his distinctive lazy eye. The boy was said to have been left ‘absolutely devastated’ by his ordeal. The assault began in the early evening of June 2 last year after the boy went to a gentleman’s toilet at Manchester Arndale Centre after leaving a youth club. As he stood at the urinals, El-Janabi and Wilson-Fletcher began staring at him. Giving evidence by video link, the boy said: ‘I left the youth group at 5.45pm. ‘I was walking near the Arndale and I needed the toilet. When I went in, some Asian person stood next to me and started staring at me, looking at me up and down.’ The boy said he felt so ‘anxious’ and ‘nervous’ he moved along one urinal for more privacy – but Wilson-Fletcher had already entered the toilets and started eyeing him up on his other side. The youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, added: ‘The Asian person grabbed my arm and said “come with us, you’re going to do anything we say and if you try to run away we will catch you”.’ The boy said a cleaner and some other shoppers were present in the toilets while he was threatened and said: ‘I started panicking. He mumbled it to me – he said it to me so no-one else could hear.’ The boy said he made a dash for it, but El-Janabi caught up with him, motioning the boy in the direction of the Debenhams store with his paper – with Wilson-Fletcher following closely behind. ‘He tapped me with the paper. The white person was behind – if I had ran the opposite way, the white man would have been there’, he said. The court heard that once inside the store, the victim was directed into the lift, they took up to the toilets. Neil Fryman, prosecuting, said: ‘They both went into the male toilets. A short time later, prosecution say, that Mr Wilson-Fletcher went into these toilets at Debenhams.’ The two men then abused the boy before Eljanabi raped him as Wilson-Fletcher looked on. Mr Fryman said: ‘The two defendants are in it together. It was a common enterprise. Mr Wilson-Fletcher was in full presence, knowing what was going on, intending it to go on and encouraging it to go on.’ The complainant was examined and a nationwide appeal was launched, with CCTV images of the men. El-Janabi became a suspect after his flat caretaker alerted police after seeing photograph of him in a press release. Police visited his home in Longsight, Manchester, on August 23, 2012, but there was no answer. My Fryman said: ‘Activity could be seen behind the door but the door wasn’t opened.’ But police swooped the next morning at 7.55am and arrested El-Janabi at his flat, in which officers found DVDs strongly suggesting he had a sexual interest in young men. He was matched to the man in the CCTV footage by facial-mapping experts. El-Janabi who settled in the UK in 2012 later told police: ‘I had nothing to do with this attack. I was not there. I was elsewhere. I didn’t know the complainant. I have no involvement in this whatsoever.’ The court heard he had served in the Iraqi army as a military intelligence officer and fought in the Iran-Iraq war in 1980 and the Gulf War of the early 90s. He claimed he had been captured and tortured by American soldiers which left him with long standing knee injuries and said he was bedridden at the time of the sexual assault. Wilson-Fletcher said he had ‘no recollection what happened that day’, but denied any involvement in an attack.