Maidstone man jailed over rape in Gillingham on Christmas Eve

03/08/2012

A Maidstone man has been jailed for eight years, after being found guilty of raping a woman in Gillingham in the early hours of Christmas Eve morning.

The woman went out with friends, but became separated from them. She was then picked up by Nathan Gifford, who attacked her. Gifford was driving a vehicle owned by a taxi company, but had no hackney carriage licence himself.

Prosecutor Alistair Dickson, from CPS South East ,said: "Despite Gifford's claims that he was only trying to assist the woman, the truth was much more sinister. He found his victim in a vulnerable state and pretended to act as a "Good Samaritan", offering her a lift home in what appeared to her to be a taxi, a vehicle in which people would expect to be safe. Gifford then attacked his victim in what must have been an appalling ordeal for her, before leaving her at the side of the road. I hope today's sentence helps to enable her to move forward with her life."