Wanted criminal raped vulnerable woman in abandoned van in Leeds
A man has been jailed for raping and beating a woman in an abandoned van.
Alin Nina was jailed at Leeds Crown Court this week for the beastly assault on the terrified victim.
The Romanian national was wanted by police at the time on suspicion of a criminal damage offence.
The victim had been smoking crack cocaine in a car near St James’s Hospital on the night of October 7 last year, the court heard.
She then woke up the next morning in the back of the abandoned van and without her clothes, without any memory of how she got there.
Prosecutor Soheil Khan said Nina was laid on a sofa bed in the van next to her, and then tried to have sex with her.
She refused and tried to stop him but he punched her to the face and ribs.
The 29-year-old then raped her before returning her clothes.
Nina then made the woman follow him to a local shop, but she spotted a friend and raised the alarm.
Nina told the friend that the woman was his girlfriend and she was staying with him, but the women were able to get away.
The defendant was later arrested and interviewed. He said another man had brought the victim to the van who had tried to rape her but Nina said he fought him off.
He denied any sexual contact had taken place but then said the woman may have had sex with him when he was asleep.
Nina, whose address was given as an immigration-removal centre in Gatwick, London, admitted two counts of rape.
He appeared in court this week from HMP Leeds. He has seven previous convictions for 18 offences, but none for sex crimes.
Mitigating, Catherine Silverton said his best mitigation were his guilty pleas. She said the was a “presence of remorse” and was “very ashamed”.
She added the he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Judge Howard Crowson determined that his mental-health issues had little effect on his conduct at the time of the attack.
He told him: “You took advantage deliberately of a vulnerable woman. She was trapped and naked in that van with you.”
He said it was uncertain who had abducted the victim.
He jailed Nina for nine years and nine months and put him on the sex offender register for life.