'Dangerous sexual predator' guilty of raping woman who mistook him for her taxi driver on Leeds night outhttps://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/ ... er-5605172A “dangerous sexual predator” who picked up a woman who thought he was the taxi she ordered has been found guilty of raping her.
Image: West Yorkshire Police/Yorkshire Evening PostRashid Kwabena Boachie picked up the woman, who had been drinking with friends, before driving her to a secluded location and attacking her in August 2021.
He claimed it was consensual, but the jury convicted him after an eight-day trial at Leeds Crown Court.
He was also found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in Leeds city centre, but cleared of attempting to rape her.
The jury deliberated for around four hours before returning a majority verdict on the two offences.
It was only after he was arrested for the attack on the woman in Leeds city centre last year was his DNA matched with samples taken from the woman from 2021.
He will now return to court to be sentenced on March 28, with Judge Neil Clark warning him that a “lengthy custodial sentence will follow”.
He was remanded back into custody.
During the trial it was heard that the rape victim had been out drinking in the Hunslet area on the August bank holiday in 2021.
Intoxicated and becoming separated from friends later in the evening, she rang for a taxi. When a car pulled up, she got in, assuming it was the cab she had ordered.
However, Boachie was behind the wheel and he drove around looking for a “secluded place” to rape her.
Boachie pulled into one car park but was disturbed, so drove to the car park of the John Charles Centre for Sport off Middleton Grove, Middleton, where he put the seats down and raped her.
Afterwards, he drove her to where she had initially wanted the taxi to drop her off.
Crying and shaking, she told her mother what had happened and the police were contacted.
DNA samples were found on her clothing, but there was no match on the database, so the “case went cold”.
On August 9 last year, a woman had been out drinking in Leeds city centre and in the early hours she too became separated from friends.
Footage from various bars earlier that evening showed 44-year-old Boachie drinking and dancing and was being “persistent” in talking with females.
The victim then bumped into Boachie in the street, who led her down an alleyway in Blayds Court, next to the Travelodge hotel.
He pushed her up against a wall behind industrial bins and sexually assaulted her.
She screamed and struggled which was heard by an employee of the hotel.
When disturbed by the staff member, Boachie calmly walked off “pretending nothing had happened”.
Boachie was later arrested and during his interview denied wrongdoing.
But after his DNA was taken, it flagged up as a match to the sample taken from the woman four years prior.
Boachie, of Ashby Terrace, Bramley, was later quizzed about that incident, but claimed it was consensual.
Detective Inspector Jodie Hayes, of the Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, said: “In both cases, Boachie has deliberately preyed on heavily intoxicated, vulnerable women who have become separated from their friends. He is a dangerous sexual predator who will hopefully now be behind bars for a long time.
“The victims have both shown immense courage throughout, and I am sorry that despite the evidence against him, Boachie refused to admit what he had done, resulting in them having to go through the trial process.
“Members of the public played a valuable role in helping us identify Boachie in the CCTV images from the 2025 offence. By arresting him for that offence, we were able to then link him back to the earlier offence.
“Cases like this are never fully closed, we will always act on any new evidence to get justice for victims.
“There were four years between these offences and there is potential that Boachie has committed other crimes during that time. If anyone has been a victim of an offence, we would urge them to report it. You will be supported throughout by specially trained officers, as these two victims have been.”
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