Illegal immigrant dealer guilty of rape Published on Friday 8 June 2012 16:16 A DRUG dealer who was in the country illegally raped a marketing executive in a knife-point sex ordeal after she went to buy cannabis from him. Joachim Cardos threatened to kill his victim as he brutally attacked her and carried out sex acts before she managed to flee. Cardos, 32, from Gambia, had denied raping the woman at his flat on October 22 last year, but was today convicted of the crime by a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh. During the assault to the danger of the victim's life he pushed her onto a bed, compressed her neck, brandished a knife at her, demanded that she take off clothing and perform a sex act on him. Cardos had admitted that between January 2010 and October last year he was concerned in the supply of the Class B drug in Edinburgh. Advocate depute Neil Beardmore told the court that Cardos had arrived in Britain on a visa but overstayed and was in the country illegally. The 26-year-old woman said she had fallen into the habit of smoking cannabis to help her get to sleep and regularly bought pounds 20 bags of the drug from a supplier she knew only as "Buba." She had been given his mobile phone number outside an Edinburgh nightclub and would text him to arrange a purchase. The woman said she had gone to his flat in the city's Dalry Road on October 22 and bought two bags of cannabis, but as she got ready to leave he tried to kiss her. She said: "I said "No, I have a boyfriend."" But he grabbed her and shoved her into a bedroom. The woman told the court as she gave evidence from behind a screen: "I could just see his eyes widen and his nose flare. It just looked like an angry face. The seven-stone victim was pinned down on the bed by 15-stone Cardos with his weight on her chest. She said: "I wanted to ask him "Why?" and what was happening, but I couldn't speak because I couldn't breathe." He said he was going to kill me. He said to me: "Do you know how many people I have killed."" She said she had pleaded with him as he put his hands round her neck. Cardos returned to the room armed with a bread knife and the woman said she offered him lots of money and said she would do anything if he let her go. He kept saying I was bad and he was going to kill me. I thought he had flipped or was on drugs or something," she said. The woman said the knife was still in his hand as he ordered to take off her cardigan and jeans. Mr Beardmore asked her if she had agreed to have sex and she replied: "In exchange for getting out alive, yes." Cardos denied using any threats or force, but said he did not know how the woman came to have marks on her neck or why she had left his flat without her mobile phone. Following the jury's verdict the judge, Lord Hardie, placed Cardos, who was previously assessed as sane and fit to plead, on the sex offenders" register. He deferred sentence on him until next month for the preparation of a background report including a risk assessment and remanded him in custody. The judge said that any issue over deporting Cardos was a matter for the Home Secretary.