Taxi Driver Online

Not much here on how he 'pretended' to be a taxi driver, other than that was what the victim claimed.

Of course, for the rape charge to stand she'll presumably have to be deemed to have been incapable of giving consent, or similar, so to that degree her claim on the taxi angle might be considered doubtful.

Not that the taxi angle would make any difference to the central allegation, by the looks of things


Man accused of raping woman after pretending to be taxi driver in Northern Quarter, court hears

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... r-22073281

Ernesto Lusadisu denies all the allegations


Image: Manchester Evening News

A man accused of rape picked up the alleged victim and carried her across the street “for fun” before driving her home to his flat, a court has heard.

CCTV footage shows Ernesto Lusadisu physically scooping up a young woman he had just met during an early hours encounter in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.

Mr Lusadisu, 33, is currently on trial accused of raping her.

Prosecutors say Mr Lusadisu pretended to be a taxi driver, took the woman back to his flat, sexually assaulted her in the lift and then raped her in his apartment in the early hours of January 20, 2018.

The complainant - a woman in her 20s - asked Mr Lusadisu to use a condom in the hope of buying some time, the prosecution claims.

When he went to his car to fetch one, she fled from the flat and banged on a neighbour’s door to raise the alarm, prosecutors say.

Mr Lusadisu was arrested later that morning.

He denies the charges against him and on Thursday (November 4) told a crown court jury that the complainant agreed to be driven back to his flat where they had consensual sex.

The defendant told Manchester Crown Court how he had been with another woman, a ‘friend, on the night of January 19, 2018, and they had had sex.

He left her home and went to Deansgate Locks for a drink, but told his friend he had gone home, the court heard.

Mr Lusadisu said he then drove home via the Northern Quarter in the early hours of January 20, where he bought some chicken which he ate in his car.

Prosecutor Alaric Bassano asked Mr Lusadisu if he was in fact “cruising around in your car looking for a woman”. The defendant denied this.

Mr Lusadisu said he saw the complainant from his car and she seemed ‘fine’ and didn’t appear drunk.

When asked why he picked her out he said: “There was no special reason. I saw her, I just find attractive. I just want to meet and talk.”

Mr Lusadisu said he “just wanted to know her” and thought they could perhaps become friends.

He denied thinking about sex when he saw her and said he thought they could “try to know each other and see where our friendship will lead”.

Mr Lusadisu said he did not think the complainant appeared drunk.

“I could tell that she had a drink but not in the way where she can’t remember,” he told the jury.

“She knew what she was doing.”

The court was shown CCTV footage of Mr Lusadisu parking his car on a back street in the Northern Quarter at around 4.14am.

He could then be seen approaching the complainant and speaking to her as she sat on a step - an interaction Mr Bassano said lasted just 40 seconds.

Mr Lusadisu told the court that he had asked the woman if she was okay and she told him she had lost her friends.

He said she agreed to go to his place for a drink and he had told her he would then drive her home.

Mr Bassano suggested that the footage shows Mr Lusadisu looking around “to check the coast is clear” - something the defendant denies.

When asked why he had his arm around the complainant while walking to the car, Mr Lusadisu said it was “for fun” and said he would have removed it if she had asked him to.

When asked why he picked her up and carried her across the road before putting her down again - a scene captured on CCTV - he again said it was “for fun”.

Mr Bassano said: “Within one minute (of meeting her) you are physically picking her up and carrying her across the street. That’s for fun is it?”

“Yes,” Mr Lusadisu said.

The prosecution say the complainant believed Mr Lusadisu was driving her home because he was a taxi driver. Mr Lusadisu denied this.

He said: “She was in the city centre at 4am. I was a stranger to her. Never in this world has a taxi driver come to someone and say ‘can I drive you’. She knew what was happening.”

The prosecution says that Mr Lusadisu used force to take the complainant up to his flat.

The defendant denies physically holding the complainant on the way up to his flat in the lift.

He told the court that he “wished to god” that CCTV footage from inside that lift as he believes it would show “who is lying and who is not”.

Once inside the flat, Mr Lusadisu said he offered her a drink, which she declined and the pair had consensual sex.

The prosecution says the complainant asked Mr Lusadisu to get a condom to ‘buy some time’.

But Mr Lusadisu said the complainant would not have asked him to get a condom if it was not a consensual act.

Mr Lusadisu denies rape.

Proceeding.


Image: Manchester Evening News

_________________
IDFIMH

Well that didn't take long, and this was published only 13 hours after the first piece by the looks of it, although of course that's not necessarily consistent with the length of the trial and when it took place, precisely.

But verdict hardly a big surprise.

The article looks like 99% rehash of the above, so only the new bits below. But if you haven't read the first piece then probably best to visit the link below to read it all there in case I've missed something with a quick skim read. And no further illumination on the 'taxi' angle either:


Vile pervert pretended to be taxi driver to rape drunk stranger he picked up in city centre

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... r-22085117

Ernesto Lusadisu drove to the Northern quarter, bought some chicken to eat in his car, and waited

A man who pretended to be a taxi driver to lure a drunk woman back to his flat has been found guilty of raping her.[...]

He denied rape and sexual assault during a trial at Manchester Crown Court this week.

In his evidence he said the sex was consensual.

But the jury rejected his story and today (November 5) found him guilty of both charges.

Lusadisu is due to be sentenced on November 30.[...]

He is now facing jail after being found guilty of rape and sexual assault.

Well done to them.

_________________
IDFIMH

Have deleted the earlier BBC article. This in the Sun provides a different angle on the incident, the victim's impact statement, and the sentencing.


MONSTER CAGED Sex predator posed as taxi driver to abduct and rape new mum he found drunk on streets


Image: Greater Manchester Police/Cavendish/The Sun

A PREDATOR posed as a taxi driver to abduct and rape a new mum he found drunk in the street.

Ernesto Lusadisu, 35, skulked Manchester city centre for a victim when he spotted the woman slumped outside a bar after becoming separated from her friends.

He lured the 25-year-old into his car but drove her to his home where he forced himself on her.

The woman only managed to escape the nightmare ordeal when she tricked Lusadisu into retrieving a condom and ran from his flat.

The fiend has now been jailed for 12 years after being convicted rape and assault.

His victim told Manchester Crown Court how she has "changed completely as a person" after the horror attack in January 2018.

In a brave victim impact statement, she said: "I don't go out much at all now and don't go out at all without my husband or a close friend. I am anxious when I do go out and I have suffered with depression.

''I have had panic attacks because of what happened and I now don't sleep well at all. I have changed jobs three times since I was sexually assaulted as sometimes I can't face people or face leaving the house.

"I have got my safe bubble of my family and close friends but often can't face anyone else as I don't trust other people now”.

Lusadisu, who arrived in the UK from his native Angola in 2003 and was granted asylum ten years later, was "cruising around" the city centre for a target.

He saw the woman alone at around 4am after a seven-hour bender in Manchester with pals.

Alaric Bassano, prosecuting, said: ''This had been a rare night out for her and wanting to keep pace with her younger drinking companions, she admits that she got 'ridiculously, stupidly drunk'.

"By the end of the night she had even fallen over in the street and by 4am was alone and drunk, was struggling to order a taxi home because her mobile telephone had died."

Lusadisu told her he was a taxi driver and would give her a lift before helping her into his car.

HORROR ATTACK

Chillingly, the victim believed he was a "nice guy" but the predator was just motivated by his "selfish altruism".

Lusadisu told the woman he would drive her home after first stopping at his home despite her protestations.

When they arrived, she was barely able to walk and was followed around the house by the attacker - even when she used the toilet to think of an escape.

Lusadisu groped her and did not let her out of his "grip".

He took her into a bedroom where he started to undress her but the quick-thinking victim tricked him into going to his car so she could flee.

The prosecutor said: "Once he had left the flat, she seized the opportunity, put on her jeans, put her knickers in her bag and hurriedly left.

"She ran into the lift and descended to the ground floor but unfortunately for her, as the lift doors opened, he was standing right in front of her.

''She tried to move past him but he dragged her back into the lift where there was a struggle. She managed to half get out of the lift when told him firmly 'let go of me now, I’m gonna start screaming'.

"There was a wealth of evidence that she was taken against her will by both force and fraud."

BEHIND BARS

After he was arrested, the creep claimed he had consensual sex with the victim.

Test showed she was almost three times the drink driving limit when attacked and it was feared her drink was also spiked with cocaine.

Miss Recorder Kate Blackwell QC said her "vulnerability must have been obvious" as she slammed Lusadisu for masquerading as a taxi driver and "good Samaritan".

She added: "You were cynically and deliberately taking advantage of her for your own advantage.

"She was a new mother who rarely went out socialising and she got so intoxicated that night as drinking was totally out of character for her. You maintain the lie she was willing, enthusiastic and consenting to what happened in your bedroom.

"On the contrary the truth is you engaged in sexually harmful behaviour reflecting the entitlement you feel towards women and their sexual availability for your satisfaction.

"You trawled the street looking for sex and went out of your way to prey on the victim ensuring she was tricked, walked, driven, carried and led firmly to the door of your flat. The effect on her had been profoundly life changing."

Scumbag denied permission to appeal.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... o-28155947

_________________
IDFIMH