Chronicle Editor
An Australian woman was held captive, starved and repeatedly raped by a charming liar who lured her to Pakistan with the promise of a “fairytale ending”.
Lara Hall (30) met a man called Sajjad online through friends from Lahore, who wooed her by telling her she would live in a Spanish-style villa and that he would “fill in all the blank spaces” in her troubled life.
The law graduate, who suffered from OCD and came from a dysfunctional family, said she was “completely vulnerable” to Sajjad’s charms, especially at a time when her life in Sydney was “s***”.
However, once she arrived in Pakistan the horrifying truth about him began to emerge.
Lara flew to Lahore to meet Sajjad for the first time early last year for his brother’s wedding so she could see if their internet romance could turn into the real thing.But when she arrived she discovered the house he lived in was filthy with 20 people living in five rooms.
Over the next few weeks Sajjad admitted that he had fabricated the Spanish villa story and that he was not the man he had claimed to be.
Then the abuse started, she said, and she couldn’t leave as Sajjad told her that because her visa had expired she would be arrested if she left the house.
She said: “Sajjad raped me and his brother attempted to rape me on multiple occasions.
“I was a kept woman, I was denied feminine hygiene products and had to bleed freely, I was starved over long periods of time – on one occasion up to 14 hours.”
Lara also revealed that Sajjad once even tried to rape her while she was vomiting.
He also tried to get her to convert to Islam and when she refused he “became furious”.
Lara managed to contact the Australian consulate but said that their reaction was “lacklustre” and they merely advised her to find a safer place to stay.
She was too afraid to go to the local police also for fear of word getting back.
Eventually Lara managed to contact the chief executive of an elite private members’ club for diplomats and the armed forces via Facebook .
Dr Kaiser Rafiq told local police that Lara was being kept against her will and she was rescued. She stayed with him for a few weeks before flying to Islamabad to try to sort out how to get back home.
Dr Rafiq told Daily Mail Australia: “I find her extremely genius and positive person but I was disappointed and somewhat angry at her for coming to a totally strange country and strange people whom she met only through internet.
“Our youth must learn that the internet is not a safe place and we must not believe fantasies which someone portrays on internet.” – AP
derick.khumalo