An impotent taxi driver who raped a vulnerable young woman outside a popular nightclub has been jailed for 10 years.
Michael Hurt (58) chased her victim out of a nightclub in central Belfast before taking her to a quiet nearby street and raping her, reports Sunday World.
The rogue taxi driver from West Belfast’s Black Mountain Walk tried to hide his number plate and lied to a victim about the company he worked for in a bid to avoid justice, but earlier this month Dungannon Crown went to jail for assault in court.
Judge Richard Green Casey convicted him of being a liar who was deliberately trying to victimize a drug addicted young woman.
“It would have been obvious to you that she was very vulnerable and you formed the intent to rape her shortly thereafter. 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,” he said, reports Sunday World.
The court heard how in October 2016 the victim returned home from a night out with friends in a “quite a distressed state” and immediately sensed something was wrong.
She told her friends that she was sitting in a cab and she stayed in it for a “long period of time” and she thought something was up but she was “too drunk” to remember.
The victim later said in her police questioning that she recalled “being touched and felt someone on top of her”, adding: “I do feel like I’ve had sex,” reports Sunday World.
Hurt denied raping her and insisted that he “reluctantly” gave the victim a ride home, but this was rejected by the jury.
Hurt’s attorneys told the court their client was “unwell” and suffered from high cholesterol, high blood pressure, back pain, type 2 diabetes and asthma, as well as erectile dysfunction.
They also tried to mitigate his humiliation by pointing out that his erectile dysfunction would make him less likely to commit similar crimes in the future.
Referring to the victim’s personal statement, the judge said the victim would never recover from her ordeal and ordered Hurt to spend five years behind bars, followed by five years of leave.
“She describes being consumed by her assault, which is a powerful indicator of the impact of your offending. You continue to deny your guilt and therefore lack remorse, you thought you could sexually assault her and she would not be able to recollect the events and hold you to account for your crime,” he said, reports Sunday World.
In addition to his 10-year sentence, Hurt was ordered to sign the sex offender registry for life and received a 10-year preventative sex offender order.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.