March 9, 2007
Bogus cab driver jailed for rapes
A HOMELESS asylum seeker posing as a mini-cab driver raped a 28-year-old woman in a car in Goffs Oak as she tried to get back home from London.
Algerian-born Sid Ahmed Benflici, 36, a serial rapist, pleaded guilty in court this week to the offence which happened SEVEN YEARS ago in Crouch Lane.
Following the attack, he fled to Ireland. He was convicted of another rape in Dublin in April 2000 and jailed for 10 years.
At the time of the conviction, he was serving a six-year sentence for kidnapping and orally raping a teenage student.
He was extradited to England after completing his sentences.
Benflici was due to face trial on charges of rape and false imprisonment, but changed his plea and has been remanded in custody for sentence at Woolwich Crown Court until April 20.
The charge of false imprisonment has been dropped.
The court heard how his victim only managed to escape after offering to push the car when it ran out of petrol.
Benflici “picked up” the woman, who had been out in London’s West End, by posing as a minicab driver.
She asked to go to Hertford and fell asleep in the car. When she awoke, she saw they were on a country road.
He stopped the vehicle, attacked her and forced her into the back of the car where he raped her, the court heard. Afterwards, when the car wouldn’t start because it ran out of petrol, she offered to help push it. She then got out, picked up her belongings and alerted a passer-by.
Benflici’s asylum application was rejected in January 2000.
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