Women have been urged to use only pre-booked private hire vehicles and properly licensed hackney cabs after the second sex attack in seven months by a bogus taxi driver in Manchester.
In the latest incident a 19-year-old girl left the Pangaea night at the University of Manchester’s Student Union on Oxford Road in the early hours to find a taxi.
She walked up to a car outside The Holy Name Church and when the driver confirmed he was a taxi, and she got in.
She told the man where she wanted to go but was driven to an unknown location. Before she could escape, he sexually assaulted her. When he threw her out of the car she found herself in Fallowfield and immediately called the police.
The man was mixed race, in his 30s, thin with short, shaved hair and wearing glasses. The car was a dark coloured saloon.
Detectives are checking CCTV cameras in a bid to identify the vehicle used.
In February a 43-year-old woman was picked up by a bogus taxi driver in Canal Street, in the city centre.
He drove her, in a maroon coloured car, to a car park in Norton Street, Blackfriars, Salford, where he raped her.
No one has ever been arrested for that attack.
Now police and a student’s union offcial have issued warnings to women.
Det Con Elizabeth Howe, who is investigating the latest incident, said: “This was understandably very distressing for this young woman and she is being fully supported by specially trained officers.
“We would like to hear from anyone who was out in the area or at the Pangaea event itself on Saturday, September 19, into the early hours of Sunday morning, who may have any information that could assist our investigation.
“We would also like to remind the public to use licensed taxi companies by either pre-booking or going to a designated taxi rank. Stay together on a night out, and never get into an unknown car without checking it is a licensed taxi first.
"If unsure, go to a taxi rank particularly if you are on your own.”
On the Student Union’s website, women’s officer Jess Lishak said: “The student union runs a safe taxi scheme with a trusted company - Street Cars - where students can get taxis home if they feel unsafe and don’t have cash.
"You pay with your student card and then collect it the next day in return for the taxi fare.
"The fact that our streets are still not safe for women to walk down free from being targeted, sexually harassed and assaulted, and that this story, whilst being horrific and very saddening, is not shocking, is absolutely disgusting.
"Our society often teaches women to consider the possibility of being harassed, assaulted and raped when travelling, particularly at night and particularly alone, before it teaches men to not harass, assault and rape women and that is utterly wrong."
'There needs to be more proactive policing in checking vehicles outside nightclubs'
City licensing chiefs launched a major crackdown on fake taxis in Manchester following the death of Salford University graduate Rachel Thacker more than a decade ago.
They ruled that private-hire cars must be either white or silver and display prominent yellow city council branding.
In 2010, the M.E.N. called for all private hire cars in Greater Manchester to adopt a united colour scheme to beat bogus drivers, but councils across the region still have different rules.
But Derek Brocklehurst, secretary of the Manchester Private Hire Association, said after the February incident that the real issue is a rise in unlicensed drivers - not private hire drivers or taxi drivers - waiting outside clubs in unmarked vehicles and asking for money to take clubbers home.
He said at the time: “There needs to be more proactive policing in checking of vehicles outside nightclubs to look out for opportunists."
Anyone with information about either of the attacks should call police on 0161 856 4146 or the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
