Rapist who posed as taxi driver charged victim £20 ‘fare’ after attack

Three men who preyed on and raped a lone woman have been sentenced to a combined total of 25 years in prison.

Bakhtullah Safi, 18 Habibullah Ahmadzai, 18 and Kehan Safi, 26, all from Hull, targeted the woman by letting her into what she believed to be a registered taxi after she had been on a night out with her friends.

The sickening attack took place after the trio picked the victim up on Ferensway in Hull city centre on July 30 last year, Hull Crown Court heard.

Bakhtullah Safi, and Ahmadzai, were both found guilty of rape as joint enterprise.

Kehan Safi was also charged with rape and pleaded guilty to the charge at an earlier hearing.

Yesterday, Bakhtullah Safi and Ahmadzai were both jailed for eight years, while Kehan Safi got nine years.

The jury heard the woman saw a queue of cars and got into one of them, believing it to be a taxi, just after midnight. She was raped shortly after.

A major investigation was launched by officers from Humberside Police’s Protecting Vulnerable Persons Team and the Major Crime Team.

Officers spent hours trawling and reviewing CCTV footage in and around Hull city centre to identify the vehicle in question, as well as numerous other enquiries in order to trace and identify the suspects using the car.

The footage captured the woman entering the vehicle and Bakhtullah driving away towards Hull Royal Infirmary. The vehicle was identified as being registered to Bakhtullah.

Further enquiries were conducted to trace the journey of the vehicle and it was discovered that Bakhtullah Safi dropped the woman at an address in Hull where she was allowed to get out of the car.

During the course of the journey, they continued to deceive the woman that it was a licensed taxi.

Bakhtullah Safi then demanded a £20 fare, which the woman refused before fleeing to safety.

All three men were arrested in August last year and were charged with rape.

A jury returned guilty verdicts for Bakhtullah Safi and Ahmadzai following an eight-day trial at Hull Crown Court

Detective Constable Ashley Webster said: ‘Kehan Safi, Bakhtullah Safi and Habibullah Ahmadzai are what I can only describe as ‘violent sexual predators’ who subjected a lone woman who was on her way home from a night out with friends, to an utterly horrific attack for their own sexual desires.’

‘The woman has been incredibly brave throughout the investigation and court proceedings. What she has been through is something no-one should ever be put through, and whilst this result today will never take away the horrific experience and pain, I hope it goes some way in allowing her to heal as she continues to recover.’

‘We understand the bravery and courage it takes to come forward and I want to commend her for showing such strength as she has allowed us take these abhorrent men off the streets of Humberside.’

Detective Inspector Jon Jeffs, who led the investigation, said: ‘We will never tolerate or condone any form of violence against women or girls in Humberside. Incidents of this nature always receive the highest level of dedicated response, as DC Webster and the team that were engaged in this investigation have demonstrated.’