FOUR men were jailed for 17 years each, after a "despicable and inhuman" plot to abduct a school teacher from a minicab and rape her in a park.
According to the Telegraph and Argus, one of the men Wakar Akhtar, fled the country earlier this week part-way through the ten-day trial.
The young woman lost consciousness after drinking with friends at a pub in Leeds. When she regained came round she found her arm forced behind her back and a stranger having sex with her on a bench.
Last week, the jury at Bradford Crown Court convicted taxi driver Tamseel Virk, 42, of Bradford; uncle and nephew, Azad Raja, 38, and Akhtar, 21, both of Canterbury, and Najeem Ul-Saeed, 31, of Bradford, of conspiracy to rape the teacher in May 26 this year.
Judge Durham Hall QC said: "This was a callous, utterly despicable conspiracy to abduct this young woman from Leeds to Bradford for the purpose of using her as a sex commodity.”
He added that the defendants had all blamed the woman for forcing them to do the acts she had alleged against them.
"It has been nothing short of incredible to listen to your excuses in this case," he told them.
