A BUSINESSMAN from County Durham has become the first person to be jailed as part of a major police investigation into the sexual exploitation of vulnerable young women.

Gurhan Sayan was jailed for three years nine months for sexual assault, which he admitted.

The married 45-year-old preyed on the vulnerable woman - taking her on a 20-minute ride in his car before sexually assaulting her and dumping her at the roadside, Newcastle Crown Court was told.

Sayan, of Plunkett Terrace, Chester-le-Street, saw the 28-year-old woman fall over in the street after a night out in Newcastle and got her into his car.

The predator then drove out of the city, attacking her in the back seat.

Sentencing Sayan, Mr Recorder Tim Roberts said: "She was a complete stranger to you, you took advantage of her.

"She was inside the car so she was not free to leave and there is a degree of abduction here of this woman from the city centre....to where you could engage in predatory sexual behaviour on this defenceless young woman."

The court heard the victim fears her drink may have been spiked during her night out and Sayan targeted her realising she was in a state.

Prosecutor Bob Sprang said: "She felt woozy and the defendant approached her. His face was blurred and he didn't speak to her.

"He placed his hands on her shoulders. Next thing she recalls is waking up inside his car.”

Sayan climbed into the back seat and carried out the attack, then left her on the kerb and drove off.

In a victim statement the woman said she now fears going out and sees her attacker’s face when trying to get to sleep.

The court heard in the weeks afterwards, police received reports of Sayan picking up two other women in similar circumstances - though no criminal complaints were made.

Julie Clemitson, mitigating, said Sayan led an otherwise respectable life and was in the city giving his staff a lift home that night, not looking for lone women.

Sayan was made subject to a 10-year sexually offences prevention order, the terms of which include a ban on giving lifts to women strangers.

Northumbria Police Assistant Chief Constable Winton Keenen welcomed the sentence saying: “Sayan’s abhorrent actions saw him preying on the woman’s obvious vulnerability and the fact that she was in no fit state to stop him – this was an appalling crime.”

The total of people arrested under Operation Sanctuary stands at 112 and 19 people have been charged.