Post by acnedriver on Mar 27, 2023 6:00:36 GMT
An impotent taxi driver who raped a vulnerable young woman after picking her up outside a popular nightclub has been handed a 10-year sentence.
Michael Harte (58) preyed on his drunk victim outside a nightclub in Belfast city centre before taking her to a quiet nearby road and raping her.
The evil taxi driver, of Black Mountain Walk, west Belfast, tried to hide his number plate and lied to the victim about the firm he worked for in an attempt to evade justice but was jailed for the attack at Dungannon Crown Court earlier this month.
Judge Richard Greene KC branded him a liar who had deliberately gone looking for an intoxicated young woman to victimise.
“It would have been obvious to you that she was very vulnerable and you formed the intent to rape her shortly thereafter,’’ he said.
“She was at your mercy and you carefully planned where and how you were going to attack her, you parked up in a back street off the main road and committed this appalling sexual assault on her.
“I consider this a carefully planned sexual assault and it is clear the impact on the victim has been profound.”
The court heard how the victim returned home from her night out in October 2016 in “quite a distressed state” with friends immediately sensing something was wrong. She told her pals she had got into a taxi and was in it for a “long period of time” and thought something had happened but was “too drunk” to remember.
The victim later said in her police interview she remembered “being touched and felt someone on top of her”, adding: “I do feel like I’ve had sex”.
www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/news/taxi-driver-raped-customer-after-picking-her-up-outside-belfast-nightclub/1241589768.html
Michael Harte (58) preyed on his drunk victim outside a nightclub in Belfast city centre before taking her to a quiet nearby road and raping her.
The evil taxi driver, of Black Mountain Walk, west Belfast, tried to hide his number plate and lied to the victim about the firm he worked for in an attempt to evade justice but was jailed for the attack at Dungannon Crown Court earlier this month.
Judge Richard Greene KC branded him a liar who had deliberately gone looking for an intoxicated young woman to victimise.
“It would have been obvious to you that she was very vulnerable and you formed the intent to rape her shortly thereafter,’’ he said.
“She was at your mercy and you carefully planned where and how you were going to attack her, you parked up in a back street off the main road and committed this appalling sexual assault on her.
“I consider this a carefully planned sexual assault and it is clear the impact on the victim has been profound.”
The court heard how the victim returned home from her night out in October 2016 in “quite a distressed state” with friends immediately sensing something was wrong. She told her pals she had got into a taxi and was in it for a “long period of time” and thought something had happened but was “too drunk” to remember.
The victim later said in her police interview she remembered “being touched and felt someone on top of her”, adding: “I do feel like I’ve had sex”.
www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/news/taxi-driver-raped-customer-after-picking-her-up-outside-belfast-nightclub/1241589768.html