Sarah* has spent the last decade attempting to block out the full terror of May 5, 2016.
She was just a 15-year-old schoolgirl when two older men dragged her away and attempted to rape her at knifepoint outside her auntie’s house just off the River Thames, in Limehouse, east London.
But as she marked her 26th birthday this year, she was filled with an uncontrollable rage as she discovered her predatory attackers, Muzakkir Miah and Ishion Swift, had both been freed from jail without her knowledge.
Miah, then 22, held Sarah at knifepoint and covered her mouth to stifle her screams while Swift, then 19, pulled down his trousers and attempted to rape the terrified schoolgirl.
It took over two years for the thugs to be jailed, during which time the victim says she was subjected to horrific abuse and threats to drop the charges. She refused to let them evade justice and bravely delivered her traumatic account in court.
On July 17, 2018, Miah and Swift were both jailed for nine years in custody, with the former handed an additional four years on licence. Yet neither saw out nine years before being freed.
Within months of being released halfway through his sentence, Swift was back prowling the streets and sexually assaulted another woman in High Wycombe on May 19 2023. This time he was jailed for nine weeks and ordered to pay the victim £154.
Miah, meanwhile, was plotting his upcoming freedom from behind bars, declaring he would be ‘back with a bang’.
Weeks ahead of his release, Muzakkir Miah said he would be ‘back with a bang’
Miah (pictured) was jailed for nine years in custody and four years on licence for attempted rape
Within months of his release, Miah has been sharing photos of luxury cars
The Parole Board approved his release in April, ruling that he no longer poses a danger to society.
Sarah only became aware of his freedom when friends told her he was spotted back in the area they both grew up in. Now a mother-of-two, she is taking no risks. With her attempted rapist living on her doorstep again, she has three bolts across her front door.
‘If he sees me, God knows what will happen,’ she tells me. ‘It makes me feel angry and sick that they are allowed out to live normal lives… they are evil. They put me through all of this, my life could have been so different.’
The Mail can reveal that while behind bars, Miah was boasting about his upcoming freedom using a smuggled phone.
Posing in a matching black tracksuit and cap, he wrote: ‘What don’t kill you makes you stronger… not long now I’ll be back with a bang!!’
He added on the TikTok post: ‘Soon home… maybe ‘LIFE’ is testing you, don’t give UP…’
The Parole Board said at the time of the offending, Miah had ‘problematic attitudes towards women and sex, thrill seeking behaviour and lack of victim empathy’. It added that ‘acting violently and carrying a weapon for protection had become a normal part of his lifestyle’.
However, after ‘progress’ in custody, he was moved to an open prison and released from custody in April.
We can also reveal that since his release, Miah has been boastfully sharing photos and videos of luxury cars and watches on his social media accounts. He also appears to have a new girlfriend.
Sarah and her best friend, who has tried to warn the local community of Miah’s release, have received dozens of abusive messages accusing them of making up the attack.
They suspect some of the troll accounts, which are set up and quickly deleted, could be Miah in disguise.
There were no media reports of the trial at the time, which is fuelling Miah’s defenders to claim the crime never happened. We have obtained court documents that very much prove it did.
It’s been over a decade but it doesn’t get any easier for Sarah, who admits she still remembers everything from the night of May 5, 2016.
Fighting back tears as we sit in her living room while her best friend distracts her two children, she tells me in graphic detail about the night that changed her life.
Sarah still recalls the moment she watched in horror as the group of older boys, some of whom she thought of as friends, spiked her drink with a sinister substance.
Thinking quickly on her feet, she dropped her drink on the floor, pretending it had slipped out of her hands, and breathed a momentary sigh of relief.
It was now starting to quickly sink in that these older boys, who she now admits she was naive to be hanging out with in the park, were posing a serious threat to her life.
Angry at her for ‘wasting’ a drink, Miah and Swift marched her to the nearby Riverside Store on Narrow Street, E1, and robbed a bottle of alcohol.
From there, Miah wanted to take the group to his house across the street, but Sarah decided to wait outside on the steps as she was worried about being seen by family members who lived in the same block.
‘He came back with a knife and said he was going to stab my family,’ Sarah says as she recalls how quickly Miah erupted into fury.
Terrified by the blade in front of her, she knew it was time to flee these men and get home.
But as she was walking away, Miah and Swift followed her.
‘That’s when they both dragged me. Muzakkir had a knife on me and his hand over my mouth – the same knife he was threatening my family with. Ishion was trying to pull down my trousers and his trousers were down.
‘I was literally screaming for help and trying to push them off me. They were telling me to shut up but I just kept moving and screaming.
‘It felt like ages.’
Miah has posted several pictures since his release. His victim pointed out his new look, especially that he looks bigger and stronger
In another picture, he is seen wearing a matching tracksuit and black sunglasses
Miah has also been sharing pictures of watches and jewellery on his Snapchat account
Fortunately, her cries for help were heard by an older Asian man who came around the corner. Miah and Swift sprinted away from the scene.
‘I don’t know who the man is, but whoever that was saved me. It was so close to becoming rape instead of attempted rape.’
Sarah has felt neglected ever since that day. She says she was forced to move out of London to her grandmother’s and leave college, while Miah was bailed and allowed to roam free for two years before the trial.
Her friend recalls: ‘On one occasion me and my sister were walking the dog and he was there getting drunk with boys in the park. I confronted him, I was screaming at him.
‘And he said “I only put my hand on her mouth.”‘
They also fear that he’s got ‘bigger and stronger’ in prison. ‘He looks more dangerous, he’s big and stocky now,’ the friend says.
Sarah has not seen Miah since the attack – and is avoiding the area where he lives around the corner.
‘I have children,’ she says. ‘He still has a vendetta against me and he could hurt me or my kids. I don’t want to put my kids through that.’
She says for years, she learnt to ‘bury’ what happened to her.
She turned to drinking heavily, fell out with family and friends and could not go back to school or get a job.
But she adds: ‘Since their releases I’ve been thinking about it more, getting flashbacks of it.’
She and her friend both now realise they were being ‘groomed’ from a young age.
‘He would buy us alcohol and food. He wanted to hang around with little girls. He must have known it was wrong because he lied about his age, he told us he was 18. I’d be in my school uniform most of the time.
‘He asked us to lie about our age because he knew it was wrong.’
Sarah says she is ‘not shocked’ that Swift has re-offended since his release.
‘Someone needs to take some accountability,’ she says. ‘They could have prevented that girl.’
She has written to her local MP, calling for changes to be made to sexual offenders’ jail terms.
‘They should get longer sentences, and they shouldn’t have to do only half of it. They should do the full time. They should have parole, like murderers.
‘Muzakkir is dangerous and my case should have proved that. And now Ishion has gone and done it to someone else. If Muzakkir sees me, God knows what will happen.
‘He’s allowed back in the same area, he should be put somewhere else. Why is he back around here, where I live, where my kids live, where my family live?’
The Mail understands that Swift is back in custody, meaning he must have re-offended at least a third time. He was refused parole at a hearing in December.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Parole Board said: ‘We can confirm that a panel of the Parole Board has directed the release of Muzakkir Miah following an oral hearing.
‘Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.’
*We have changed the victim’s name to protect her entitlement to lifelong anonymity.
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