I reported the toe-sucking pervert who attacked me to police… and ended up being arrested myself

A mother has revealed how she was arrested after reporting a toe-sucking sex rapist to police. The deranged rapist roamed the streets for almost two years without being caught.

Helen Ingham, 48, called police to report she had been a victim of the terror that hotel manager Ahmed Fahmy, 45, had waged against women for more than 15 years.

But detectives missed the chance to arrest him and instead handcuffed Mrs. Ingham. She became angry and was not taken seriously, so they locked her in a cell overnight.

The perverted Fahmy walked free and was not brought to justice until almost two years later, when two other women reported rape or sexual abuse at another hotel.

Police subsequently contacted Ms Ingham for a statement and during a two-week trial we heard he raped one woman and sexually assaulted another woman in a hotel in January 2024, 22 months after he attacked Ms Ingham.

He was found guilty of sexually abusing Ms Ingham – and another woman years earlier, in 2008.

Mrs Ingham, from Warrington, Cheshire, said: ‘The police let me down and that’s even worse than what that man did.

‘Years later they contacted me to talk about what he had done to me, but when I told them, they ignored me.

“I told the police that he was going to commit another crime, but they didn’t listen. The rape could have been prevented, but instead they arrested me.”

Ms Ingham, who has waived her right to anonymity, said she was staying in a posh “hunting hotel” after a Stormzy concert when she was attacked.

The waitress immediately called the police, but claims they did not take her seriously, did not take a statement and did not arrest Fahmy for the March 2022 attack.

Instead, she was arrested after becoming angry and abusive because the officers seemed uninterested in her allegations of sexual assault, and was locked in a cell overnight.

Following the incident, Ms Ingham initially decided not to press charges due to the way she had been treated. No further action was taken.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed that the wider investigation had led to a review of the actions of two of the officers who responded to the incident, both of whom are still under investigation.

Ms Ingham and her daughter, Rheanna Talmage, 23, arrived back at the Sunborn Yacht Hotel at Victoria Dock in east London in the early hours of March 30, 2022.

The pair had spent around £500 on two nights at the ‘yacht hotel’ in a disused superyacht, for Mrs Ingham’s birthday.

They entered the hotel lobby and the then manager, Fahmy, came to them and escorted them back to their room, because they had been drinking.

When her daughter went downstairs to smoke a cigarette, the twisted Fahmy sexually assaulted Mrs Ingham after sitting on her bed.

She said: ‘He let us into our room and I thought it was strange when he went in with us.

‘I had sat down on the bed and taken off my socks and shoes. I thought he was going to leave at that moment.

‘But he sat at the foot of the bed, pulled my foot off the bed and put my big toe in his mouth.

‘I yelled at him to get out of the room and then I went to look for my daughter, in case he came looking for her.

‘When we wanted to go back in, our passes didn’t work anymore because he had locked us out.

‘As a normal person, I called the police to report the incident.

‘I was drunk and swearing when they arrived because I was angry about what he had done to me.’

Ms Ingham claims officers asked Fahmy: “What do you want us to do with her?” to which he replied: “Bring her along.”

She said that instead of having her statement taken, she was “grabbed.”

A physical altercation ensued, she said, after which she was arrested and taken to the police station.

Mrs Ingham said her daughter was ‘dropped off at a train station’ to go home alone, and spent a night in a cell.

She said: ‘They didn’t investigate my claim at the time – they didn’t care what happened to me.’

She was approached in January this year, when Fahmy was due to appear in court for several other sex crimes, including the rape of a woman.

His first offence came in 2008 when he attacked a woman living in a flat near a Hilton hotel in Watford where he was a manager, Hendon Crown Court heard.

He was also convicted of raping a woman and sexually assaulting another woman at the Anchor Guest Hotel in Golders Green on January 20, 2024.

At the hotel where he worked, a group of four women were staying. One of them woke up to find him licking her foot in her bedroom.

The next morning he encountered another woman at the hotel and pushed her into his bedroom, where he raped her.

He was found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault at Hendon Crown Court on July 25. He will be sentenced in September.

Ms Ingham has lodged a complaint with the Metropolitan Police against the two officers who were present, who say they are still being investigated.

Detectives believe there are more victims who have not yet come forward and are urging them to do so immediately.

Mrs Ingham said: ‘That night I felt like anyone could do anything to me and that I would be the one in trouble.

‘I reported a crime and then I got arrested. If you can’t trust the police, who can you trust?’

‘His later crimes could have been prevented if the police had listened to me.

‘The police waited for a crime to happen, when they could have prevented it.’

A Met Police spokesman said: ‘The investigation into Ahmed Fahmy was led by a team of experienced detectives who specialise in investigating sexual offences and providing victim support.

‘As part of their investigation into a rape case, these detectives actively sought to identify any prior crimes to which Fahmy was linked.

‘One of these was the incident at the Sunborn Yacht Hotel in Western Gateway E16 on March 30, 2022.

That night, police were called by a woman who claimed she had been sexually assaulted by a man at the hotel.

‘Officers arrived at the scene and spoke to the woman and the man. The woman was arrested on suspicion of a racist offence against public order and assault on an emergency worker. The man was not arrested.

The woman was questioned while in custody and it was later decided that no further action would be taken against her.

No further action was taken in relation to the alleged sexual offence after the woman decided she did not wish to proceed with the allegation.

“When officers investigating the rape allegation contacted the victim of this incident, she agreed to support the police. Her support, along with that of all the other victims, was instrumental in securing Fahmy’s convictions.

‘The broader investigation also led to a review of the actions of two of the officers who responded to the incident, both of whom remain under investigation.

‘Tackling violence against women and girls is a top priority in the Met. We are doing more to support communities and people whose trust has been broken. We are focusing on protecting women and girls from violence and tackling the predatory men who commit these crimes.

‘As part of the New Met for London, the Met provides specialist support to victim survivors and involves them in the decision-making process throughout the investigation.’