A serial sexual predator who raped a teenage waitress in his wife’s car after prowling the streets of south London in search of a victim has been jailed for life.
Taofiq Laguda, 46, tricked the 18-year-old woman into getting into the vehicle after pretending to need directions, then drove her to a secluded car park to carry out the attack.
He told the teenager to “get in the back or I’ll kill you”, but was traced by police when he drove back to his family home in Dagenham with the victim’s phone and handbag in the back.
Laguda has a history of sex attacks on women, and was jailed for the public protection in 2007 for raping a prostitute in Whitechapel after a row over money.
Jailing him for life with a minimum term of seven years yesterday, Recorder Annabel Darlow QC said: “You are in my opinion a highly predatory man with an established pattern of serious sexual offences, which involve deliberate targeting of vulnerable women and using a vehicle to carry out rapes.”
She said Laguda has offered no remorse for his latest attack, and has a “sexual preoccupation and a poor attitude to women”.
“It is clear that despite offending behaviour work following your last conviction, you remain willing to behave sexually how and when you want.”
Woolwich crown court heard the young restaurant worker was finishing her shift on January 24 last year, and came across Laguda at around 1am when she decided to walk home instead of waiting for a bus.
“She was a trusting and somewhat naïve 18-year-old girl, out on the street late at night on her own, and you were out that night in your wife’s vehicle”, said the judge.
“Whatever else it was you had been doing that night, I’m satisfied by the time your path crossed with that woman you were actively driving around the streets, quite deliberately looking out for a vulnerable female whom you intended, if you could, to rape.”
Laguda convinced the teenager to get into his car to give him directions, then offered to give her a lift home. Instead, he drove to a secluded spot in Greenwich and forced the woman in the back of the vehicle.
Prosecutor Tom Nicholson said the fact Laguda stole the woman’s handbag after the rape helped detectives to catch him, tracing the location of her phone to the attacker’s home.
In an impact statement, the woman told the court: “Before this happened I would have described myself as being a happy person with positive vibes. I was loud and I think people enjoyed being around me.”
She said she lost her job after the attack, and struggled to see friends as she “didn’t feel comfortable leaving my house”.
Laguda, who is married with children, was convicted of indecently assaulting a woman in 2001, after asking for directions in Deptford and then chasing her to grab hold of her breasts.
He was handed an indefinite prison sentence with a seven-year minimum in 2007 for the rape of the 24-year-old prostitute, who he had trapped in his car to carry out the attack.
Laguda, from Dagenham, denied but was convicted at trial of the 2020 rape.
Freelanews is the editorial byline of Freelanews.com, used for staff reports, news updates, press releases, and collaborative stories produced by the Freelanews Editorial Team.
