Taxi driver jailed 19 years after raping student in DNA bombshell | UK | News
A rapist who worked as a taxi driver was sentenced to 20 years in prison after attacking a 19-year-old boy in the back of his car.
Mahbubur Rahman, 50, attacked a woman in the back of his taxi after picking her up from a party in Loughborough, Leicestershire, in the early hours of 2006.
However, despite reporting this heinous crime, the case was closed in 2009 because the police were unable to identify the attacker.
Years later, in 2022, the DNA sample taken from the rapist as a result of an unrelated incident matched the DNA sample taken from the student, and the case was reopened.
He now faces 12 years in prison after being found guilty in a four-day trial.
Standing next to an interpreter, he was informed that he would spend two-thirds of his time behind bars and the remainder without a license.
On the night of the violent attack, the victim’s friends put him in a taxi when Rahman, then 31, picked him up. He stopped at an ATM, then took the victim to the parking lot and raped her in the backseat.
She returned to her student accommodation without underwear or a bag, where the court heard she was “curled up in a ball on the floor” and “completely hysterical”.
During the trial, the sex offender, now 50, claimed his victim had asked for money in exchange for sex.
Another driver who returned the victim safely before his DNA was found was arrested for the crime.
The judge who handed down the sentence said the rapist “ruined” his victim’s life and took advantage of a “young girl in a new city”.
Detective Constable Kristina Page-Brown, who has been on the case since the DNA match was identified, said she had “waited 19 years to find some form of resolution and justice for the traumatic ordeal the victim endured that night.”
He added: “I know that the man responsible for this terrible crime is still out there and it has been extremely difficult for him to live his life all these years.”
Senior Investigating Officer Detective Inspector Mike Chandler said: “Bringing criminals to justice is a critical part of our mission, no matter how long ago the crime occurred.”
