Rapist who threatened to stab victim is on the run after being released by mistake

A rapist who held his victim at knifepoint and threatened to kill her is on the run from justice after being accidentally released from prison.

Bernadin Dedic, 48, had been drinking red wine and was high on cocaine when he pulled out a knife and warned the woman she ‘wouldn’t be heard’ if she screamed.

He cut off her clothes before subjecting her to a series of rapes and sexual assaults in an ordeal which lasted for several hours.

Dedic, a businessman living in Ealing, west London, was remanded in custody last year after being charged with four charges of rape, two counts of sexual assault by penetration, causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, threatening a person with a knife when in a private place, and making a threat to kill.

But in February he was mistakenly set free from HMP Wormwood Scrubs after a court official wrongly told the prison that he had been granted bail.

Within hours, Dedic had left the UK on the Eurostar and returned to his native country of Bosnia.

He put forward a litany of excuses for not coming back to face justice, including claims of a heart attack and a skiing accident, and he remained in Bosnia as the trial went ahead this month at Isleworth Crown Court.

On Tuesday, a jury convicted Dedic on all nine counts in his absence.

If he fails to return for the sentencing hearing, the UK authorities are expected to commence extradition proceedings so that he can be brought to serve the inevitable lengthy jail term.

Prosecutor Simon Sandford told the court Dedic carried out the attacks at his west London home, shortly after separating from his partner.

Dedic is thought to have consumed as much as four bottles of red wine and snorted lines of cocaine before luring the woman to his basement, after she had turned down his offer of ‘no strings attached’ sex.

‘When downstairs, she turned towards the stairs and saw him, holding a red-handled oriental kitchen knife,’ said the prosecutor.

‘He stepped towards her, took hold of her and said he would kill her and then kill himself.

‘She was extremely frightened but tried to calm him down. He said if she screamed, she wouldn’t be heard.’

Dedic slapped the woman in the face and told her to ‘shut up’, used the knife to cut off her sports bra and top, and then ordered her to remove the rest of her clothing, the court heard.

‘She was terrified and was prepared to do whatever he said.’

Dedic, who was represented in court hearings by a leading barrister, sent messages saying he wanted to come back to stand trial, but claimed to be struggling to obtain a visa.

His UK passport had been seized by the Metropolitan Police during the rape investigation, but after being set free from prison he had used his Bosnian passport to secure a seat on the Eurostar.

Efforts were made by a senior judge, police officers and Border Force agents to facilitate Dedic’s return to the UK for a trial in March, but at the eleventh hour Dedic told his lawyers that he was now unable to travel due to a knee injury said to have been sustained in a skiing accident.

Judge Martin Edmunds KC, the Recorder of Kensington and Chelsea, reluctantly agreed to delay the trial from March to June, so that he could recover and fly to the UK.

But in June, Dedic once again failed to show up to court and claimed to have suffered a heart attack in Sarajevo.

When first hearing the news, Judge Hannah Duncan said she was ‘far from convinced he has had a heart attack’, but asked for medical reports to establish the true position.

The following day, with Dedic now unrepresented in court after failing to pay his lawyers, the judge decided that the trial would go ahead without him.

She noted that he had only sought medical help after telling the court that he was suffering from chest pain, tests had revealed his heart rate was normal, and he was discharged by the hospital.

‘This is yet another attempt by Mr Dedic to obstruct, manipulate and avoid justice,’ concluded the judge.

At earlier hearings, it was revealed that Dedic had been accidentally set free from prison on February 6 after a court official mixed up digital case files and mistakenly recorded that he had been granted bail.

The notice of bail was then sent to the prison, which effected Dedic’s release.

Judge Edmunds said in his ruling: ‘Although such errors are extremely rare, and indeed this is the only instance I am aware of when there has been an erroneous release of a prisoner held in custody to this court, we take this error extremely seriously.

‘We will fully investigate how it occurred and what steps can be put in place to prevent it occurring again.’

After the accidental release was uncovered, HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) launched an investigation and a spokesperson said: ‘We understand the distress errors such as this can cause to those affected and instances like this have exposed deep-rooted issues across the broken justice system the Government inherited.’

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