A fake taxi driver has been jailed for 12 years for raping a university student he tricked into believing he was a genuine cabbie.

Muhanad Adem, 29, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court today for the “brutal and opportunistic” attack on December 13, 2018.

Adem, of Leeds, was convicted by a jury of rape on December 20 last year. The panel took less than three hours to reach its unanimous verdict.

During the trial, the court heard that the woman had spent the night out in Leeds with friends and got into the back of Adem’s car thinking it was a taxi.

She typed the postcode of her address into his phone but he drove off in a different direction before raping her in the back of his vehicle.

He then drove off again, but the student managed to escape through the car window and alert friends that she had been attacked.

After the sentencing, Claire MacDonald, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This was a brutal and opportunistic attack, late at night, on a vulnerable young woman who has been left devastated.

“The impact of sexual violence of this kind goes far beyond any physical injury and its effects for the victim are long-lasting and traumatising.

“I would like to pay tribute to the victim, who has displayed immense courage and dignity during the investigation and prosecution.

“Our thoughts remain with her, as they have been throughout.

“As a result, Adem is today beginning a lengthy prison sentence.”

Detective Chief Inspector Sharron Kaye, of West Yorkshire Police Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, said: “Adem has shown himself to be a sexual predator who targeted the victim as she made her way home from a night out.

“He put her through an horrendous ordeal which left her very badly traumatised. Since then she has shown a great deal of courage and determination to get on with her life and we hope that seeing him brought to justice will help her with that.

“Adem was caught as a result of a thorough and comprehensive investigation by specialist detectives, which should serve to illustrate how seriously we treat offences of this nature with the aim of getting justice for victims and taking dangerous offenders off the streets.”