Illegal minicab driver jailed for raping student passenger

"Predator": Astor Murray enticed a 22-year-old student into his car
12 April 2012

An illegal minicab driver was jailed for eight years today for raping a passenger.

Astor Murray, 49, was arrested six years after attacking the 22-year-old student when he was stopped by police for taxi touting. His DNA was checked against unsolved crimes and matched to evidence in the rape in 2003.

Murray, of Edmonton, was found guilty at the Old Bailey this month of rape and indecent assault. He was jailed for three years for the indecent assault, to run concurrently with his rape sentence, and was also ordered to remain on the sex offenders register for life.

He had claimed the sex was consensual.

Judge Ann Goddard told him: "I regard you as a predator. You saw a young woman and enticed her into your car by pretending to be a minicab driver."

The student told the court she was out with friends when she was approached by Murray at a bus stop in central London.

"I was approached by a man who said he was a minicab driver. He offered to take me home for £10," she said.

But Murray pulled into an industrial estate in Shoreditch, locked the doors and raped her. The student said she could not leave until he stopped at traffic lights and let her go.

She said in an impact statement that she was afraid of going out alone and would take only black cabs.

"I have not been able to have a relationship with a man since this happened," she added.

Murray was convicted last October of touting. He admitted working for two years as an illegal taxi tout.

Detective Constable Andy Beete said: "After all this time Murray thought he had got away with this awful crime, but after he posed as a taxi driver and got caught, officers matched his DNA to forensic evidence taken from the scene."

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