THE victim of a rapist doctor she met online yesterday demanded tougher controls on dating websites.
The woman was attacked by GP Khalid Jamal after they met on a match-making site. He was convicted last week of attacking her and raping another woman he had met online.
Last week we revealed how 20 women were raped last year in attacks linked to dating sites, a dramatic rise on previous years.
Jamal’s victim told how she chatted with Jamal, who lied about his age, for two weeks online before agreeing to out with him.
She said: “He was charming and very plausible and we had been dating for around 10 weeks. Then he attacked me.”
She called for greater regulation of dating websites, forcing them to carry out tighter vetting on would-be members.
The woman, a chef, said: “Dating websites should be run with safer guidelines. They are hunting grounds for sexual predators.
“Surely there must be ways to do safety checks on users. There are so many ways to check backgrounds these days.
“They could start with an age verification.
“Life has to be safer for women. That includes cleaning up websites where predators prey on honest people looking for loving relationships.”
She began a relationship with Jamal after meeting him online but on Christmas Eve 2013 the woman, then just 22, was attacked by him.
She said: “Somehow I managed to get away.
“It could have been so much worse. I have only managed to cope by telling myself I survived.”
The woman said that after the attack, she had sent Jamal a text.
She added: “I texted him to say that I was deeply upset and frightened by his behaviour.
“It was that text which led the police to contact and interview me when they found it on his phone.
“They obviously had reports of similar offences from other women. I was not the only woman he had preyed on.”
Another woman, then 19, was raped by the 45-year-old doctor, in 2016.
Jamal, who had told both women he was in his 20s, was found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting the teenager and sexually assaulting the 27-year-old at the High Court in Glasgow on Wednesday.
His first victim was advised by her family to think twice about standing up in court and being cross-examined in a sexual assault trial.
But she says she felt driven to do the right thing.
“I am glad I did. The thought of him still being free to carry out more assaults on women is painful,” she said.
“It wasn’t easy being cross- examined and reliving the assault in court, but it had to be done.
“I had to do the right thing.”
Indian-born Jamal worked as a GP at a practice in Alexandria, Dumbarton.
He has now been suspended by the General Medical Council and will be sentenced next month.
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