Five years for sex attack by 'taxi driver'

A MAN who carried out a drug-fuelled sex attack on a young student after being mistaken for a taxi driver has been jailed for five years.

Manzoor Hassan drove the 20-year-old student to a deserted car park and subjected her to a violent indecent assault before she fled barefoot, leaving her underwear and other possessions in his car.

At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, judge Lady Smith told Hassan, 34, of Home Street, Tollcross, that he had taken advantage of a vulnerable young woman who was a stranger to the city. His claim that he was high on cannabis was no excuse.

Lady Smith, passing sentence, said: "What she needed was a licensed taxi to take her safely back to the hostel where she was staying. What she did not need was the nightmare which followed, an experience for which you were entirely responsible."