Twelve year sentence handed to fake taxi driver for rape of university student

A man pretending to be a taxi driver has been handed a twelve year prison sentence for raping a university student.

Muhanad Adem was sentenced to prison at Leeds Crown Court for the rape of a University of Leeds student.

A jury took less than three hours to reach a unanimous guilty verdict on 20 December 2019.

On 13 December 2018, the victim had spent a night out with friends and got into the back of Adem’s car, thinking it was a taxi. 

The student victim typed the postcode of her address into Adem’s phone, but he drove in a different direction, and then he raped her in the back of his vehicle.

He then drove off again, but the victim managed to escape through the car window, and alert friends that she had been raped.

Claire MacDonald, a Senior Crown Prosecutor in the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit, said: “This was a brutal and opportunistic attack, late at night on a vulnerable young woman, who has been left devastated. The impact of sexual violence of this kind goes far beyond any physical injury and its effects for the victim are long-lasting and traumatising.

“I would like to pay tribute to the victim who has displayed immense courage and dignity during the investigation and prosecution. As a result Adem is today beginning a lengthy prison sentence. 

“Our thoughts remain with her, as they have been throughout.”