A rapist who abducted a young woman and was caught on CCTV carrying her through a deserted Leeds city centre has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years.
Austin Osayande raped his victim in an alleyway and laughed when the attack was over, telling her he was HIV positive.
The crime took place seven years ago and the footage gained widespread coverage. But Osayande was only caught after being linked to it by DNA from a second sexual assault he committed last year while working as a Hermes delivery driver.
A judge at Leeds crown court on Wednesday gave Osayande, 40, a life sentence, with a minimum term of 16 years, for the rape. He was jailed for 14 years for the second offence, sexual assault by penetration, to run concurrently. He will be allowed to be considered for parole after nine years and six months.
The court heard that the victim had been on a night out with friends and was intoxicated. She was on her way to get a taxi home when Osayande approached her, gathered her up and carried her to a secluded area behind a Sainsbury’s supermarket where he raped her.
The court heard harrowing victim statements from the two women.
The 2015 rape victim, then aged 24, had not been able to work since the attack, she told the court. It drove her to drink, self-harm and a suicide attempt.
She said she had lost her confidence, her ability to trust and would have to live with the memory every day of her life. “You took away my freedom of choice because of your selfish gratification, which has since left me numb, degraded and hurt both mentally and physically,” she said.
“I’ve endured so much pain over the years and will never fully overcome the torture you’ve put me through. No matter how much therapy I’ve had, it will never fully take it away.”
The court heard Osayande delivered parcels to his second victim on a number of occasions. He made a delivery on the day of the attack and said he would come round later for a coffee. She let him in but didn’t have the confidence to ask him to leave when she then realised she did not want him to stay.
She tried to push him away during the assault but Osayange was much bigger and stronger.
She said in a statement read to the court that she now suffered anxiety going out alone. Her daughter picked up on this and was more clingy. She had separated from her long-term partner because she struggled to trust men and had lost friends.
“I just feel like everything is on top of me. And I’m blaming myself. As a result of the attack I’ve pushed everyone away, especially the people close to me.
“I am not sure I will be able to be emotional or physical with anyone ever again, and most of all I hate myself for making a stupid choice.”
The defence barrister Robert Mochrie said his client wanted, through him, to express “his genuine remorse” for the crimes, which Osayande initially denied before changing his pleas to guilty last month.
Jailing Osayande, the recorder of Leeds, Judge Guy Kearl QC, said: “I find you are a sexual predator – you are a danger to women. That danger continued for at least six years – there is no reason to think it will not continue.”
After the hearing Pat Twiggs, temporary assistant chief constable of West Yorkshire police, said: “Osayande is the absolute embodiment of a dangerous sexual predator. The CCTV footage from 2015 shows him prowling the streets in the early hours, hunting for a woman to sexually attack for his own twisted gratification.
“The traumatic impact that his appalling actions have caused to the victims of both these offences [should not be] underestimated.”
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.
