Bogus taxi driver jailed for raping teen reveller
‘Unspeakably wicked’
A TEENAGER who posed as a taxi driver to pick up a drunk woman before raping her was jailed for ten years yesterday.
Romanian Abel Muntean, now 19, waited in his car outside a nightclub in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2017 until he found a victim.
Pretending to be a cabbie, he picked up the then 18-year-old in Kirkcaldy, Fife, abducted and raped her before taking her to a house, where fellow Romanian Raul Novac subjected her to a further rape.
Father-of-three Novac, 34, was jailed for five years after a trial in which the pair denied raping the woman, who was intoxicated and incapable of giving consent. He was sentenced to a further two years and three months after fleeing and failing to appear at a previous hearing.
At the High Court in Edinburgh, Judge Lord Uist told Muntean: ‘You were convicted of shocking, predatory and outrageous criminal conduct consisting of the abduction and two rapes of an 18-year-old woman.
‘You waited in your car outside a nightclub as it was emptying, flashed your lights to draw her attention, pretended your vehicle was a taxi and you were a taxi driver and so induced her to enter your car.
‘You abducted her, removed her dress and raped her. You thereafter took her to the house of your coaccused and provided her to him so he could rape her.
‘As a result, she has suffered permanent mental and emotional effects. Your behaviour towards her, which was obviously premeditated, can be described only as unspeakably wicked and wholly callous.’
He said Muntean has continued to deny the offences and shown no remorse, adding that he posed a significant risk of reoffending.
The woman, now 20, had told the court: ‘I remember I was really drunk. I saw someone getting into a car that looked like a taxi. I opened the door and asked, “Could you take me home?”. He said, “Yes”.’
She said the driver pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and asked her if she wanted a drink. She said she took a drink, adding: ‘I can’t remember anything after that.’
Her next memory was waking up naked in bed in a strange house. She said: ‘My body was in agony.’
Both men were placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.
Lord Uist told them: ‘In the case of each of you, it will be a matter for the Home Secretary to decide whether you should be deported on completion of your sentences.’