Student Charged with Sexual Assault Claims He Was Reenacting 50 Shades
A University of Illinois at Chicago student charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old classmate reportedly told police that he was inspired by the recent film adaptation of 50 Shades of Grey.
Mohammad Hossain, a 19-year-old freshman, is accused of inviting the woman—who "he'd previously been intimate with," according to Assistant State's Attorney Sarah Karr—to his dorm room Saturday evening. Once there, the two apparently engaged in a consensual hookup until Hossain allegedly escalated things by binding the woman's hands and legs with belts and stuffing a tie into her mouth.
Hossain used a knit cap to cover the woman's eyes, Karr said, and removed the woman's bra and underwear. He then began striking the woman with a belt. After hitting her several times, the woman told Hossain he was hurting her, told him to stop "and began shaking her head and crying," said Karr.
Hossain continued striking the woman — including with his fists, according to an arrest report — and she managed to get one arm, and then another, free. But he then held her arms behind her back and sexually assaulted her as she continued to plead for him to stop, according to Karr.
Not long after, Hossain's roommate attempted to enter the room. Hossain tried to block the door, but the woman managed to flee. She quickly told a friend and then the police about the alleged assault.
During police questioning, Hossain reportedly admitted the assault and "doing something wrong" but said he and the woman had been reenacting scenes from 50 Shades of Grey.
After public defender Sandra Bennewitz noted Hossain's record of student leadership, Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. responded: "Sandra, how can someone involved in all that let a movie persuade him to do something like this?"
"He would say that it was consensual," Bennewitz replied, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Hossain was charged with felony aggravated criminal sexual assault and is being held on $500,000 bail.
UPDATE 3/19/15: The rape charge against Hossain has been dismissed. From the Tribune:
Judge Peggy Chiampas found no probable cause after a lengthy preliminary hearing in which the alleged victim testified.
...
His 19-year-old accuser, a chemistry major at UIC, testified for more than 90 minutes Thursday, at times wringing her hands as she told the judge her encounter with Hossain on Feb. 21 was consensual at first but that she told him to stop and began crying after he hit her hard with a belt.
"I was saying, 'No, stop,' shaking my head from side to side," she said.
"He said, 'I want to see how much you can take,'" she testified. "He said, 'I want to see you cry.'"
Hossain's lawyer and a prosecutor had finished questioning the woman when the judge had several questions of her own. Chiampas asked if the woman had said anything to Hossain when he bound her wrists or while he allegedly sexually assaulted her. She answered no to both questions.