ALI CHIKANE

A sex attacker who strangled and raped a woman in the early hours of the morning in a street attack after the victim left a house party was warned today that he faced a "significant" jail sentence.

Ali Chikane, 35, grabbed the woman by the neck and throttled her in a lane in Edinburgh as he subjected her to the sexual assault ordeal.

Chikane had denied attacking and raping the woman on February 5 last year at Murieston Crescent Lane in the city's Dalry area but was found guilty of the offence at the High Court in Edinburgh.

A judge told him: "You have been convicted by the jury of rape to injury and danger of life while on bail.

A significant custodial sentence is inevitable." Chikane, of Cables Wynd House, Edinburgh, who was on bail during his trial, was remanded in custody after the verdict.

He was convicted of seizing hold of and compressing the woman's neck, restricting her breathing, before forcing her to bend over and raping her.

The court heard that after an argument Chikane forced himself on her, grabbed her neck and squeezed, leaving her feeling that her eyes were popping.

She began to feel dizzy and told her attacker she could not breathe.

She said of the sex attack: "I was crying.

I remember swearing at him.

I just remember shouting at him to stop it." Following the assault the woman flagged down a passing bus as she tried to escape from her attacker.

Chikane, who followed the proceedings with the aid of an Arabic interpreter, told the court that the victim told him to have sex with her.

He said: "She forced us to do sex with each other."