A rapist who worked as a taxi driver has been jailed two decades after he assaulted a 19-year-old in the back of his vehicle.
Mahbubur Rahman, 50, assaulted a woman in the back of his cab in 2006, after picking her up from a party in Loughborough, Leicestershire in the early morning.
But despite reporting the vile crime, the case was closed in 2009 because coppers couldn’t identify the attacker.
Years later in 2022, a DNA sample collected from the rapist, after an unrelated matter, matched the one taken from the student, and his case was reopened.
He’s now set to face 12 years behind bars, after being found guilty in a four-day trial.
Standing with an interpreter, he was informed he will spent two-thirds of his time behind bars, and the rest of it on license.
Friends of the victim put her in a taxi on the night of the violent assault, when Rahman, who was 31 at the time, picked her up. He stopped at a cash machine, then drive the victim to a carpark and raped her in the back seat.
She went back, to student accomodation , without her underwear or handbag, where the court heard she “curled in a ball on the floor” and was “completely hysterical”.
During the trial, the now 50 year old sex offender claimed his victim had asked for money in exchange for sex.
Before his DNA was discovered, another driver, who had taken the victim back safely, was arrested for the crime.
The judge handing down the sentence said the rapist had “blighted” the life of his victim, and had taken advantage of a “young girl in a new city”.
Detective Constable Kristina Page-Brown, who had been working as the officer in the case since the DNA match was identified said that the “victim has waited 19 years to get some sort of resolution and justice for the traumatic ordeal she was subjected to that night”.
She added: “Knowing the man responsible for this horrendous crime was still out there and living his life is something I know has been extremely difficult for her all these years.”
Detective Inspector Mike Chandler, Senior Investigating Officer, said: “Bringing offenders to justice – no matter how long ago a crime may have been committed – is a critical part of our duty.”