Bogus taxi driver abducted and raped woman in Manchester

A man who pretended to be a taxi driver before abducting and raping a woman in Manchester has been jailed.

Ernesto Lusadisu, 35 targeted the woman, who was slumped on a step on the pavement after a night out in the Northern Quarter.

The mum, who said she rarely went out drinking, was found to have cocaine in her system.

She feared she had been spiked, because she is 'frightened' of drugs and had never knowingly used any before.

Manchester Crown Court heard that Lusadisu was out driving his car in the early hours of a Saturday morning when he spotted his victim, a woman in her 20s.

She was 'extremely drunk', her phone had run out of charge and she'd lost her friends.

Parking his car on a back street, Lusadisu went over to her and offered her a lift.

She was unable to walk without help, and at one point Lusadisu appeared to have her in a 'headlock' as he forced her into his car.

Then she got in the back seat of his car. Lusadisu refused to take her home, and instead took her to his flat where he raped her.

The woman managed to escape and banged on a neighbour's door for help

The judge, Recorder Kate Blackwell QC, said this was 'clear evidence' she believed that Lusadisu was a taxi driver.

"You offered her a lift home and in her drunken condition and with her guard down, she believed and trusted you and agreed to travel with you in your car," the judge said.

"This was abduction by falsely representing that you were a taxi driver and forcibly walking her to your car, thereby engaging both fraud and force."

Lusadisu from Miles Platting was jailed for 12 years.