A SEXUAL predator who abducted and raped a teenage girl after a night out has been given a 17-year sentence.

Saman Osmanzadeh was prowling the streets of Darlington in his car looking for vulnerable young women to satisfy his depraved needs when he targeted the young woman as she made her way home.

The 31-year-old then took his victim to a friend’s house in Bishop Auckland where he raped her before taking her back to Darlington and dropping off the distressed teenager at a friend’s house in March this year.

During his trial at Teesside Crown Court, the rapist threw away his chance to give evidence when he refused to answer questions and continually disrupted proceedings with verbal outbursts.

Judge Jonathan Carroll told Osmanzadeh that he had no doubt that the defendant was acting in a ‘predatory manner’ while he waiting to target an isolated and vulnerable young girl and ‘effectively abducted her’.

He said Osmanzadeh plied the victim with alcohol and cocaine to ensure that she remained in an intoxicated state while he raped her.

“She was in no fit state to consent to sexual intercourse,” he added. “In fact, she has no recollection whatsoever from the moment she left until she woke up in a location she didn’t recognise, with a man she didn’t know who had had sex with her.

“There is no doubt in my mind that on that night she became the victim of a predatory rapist.”

In a victim impact statement, read out by prosecution counsel Christine Egerton, the teenager said she was unable to enjoy a night out or form relationships with men and now avoids certain groups of men.

Miss Egerton added: “For some time after the incident she was constantly washing herself because she felt so dirty. She has turned to drugs and alcohol to try and make herself feel better.”

During the trial, the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: "When I came to realise what had happened I started to cry. I was starting to piece it together and wondered how I had got there.

"I didn't remember anything and that is when it shocked me, because I couldn't remember."

CCTV footage showed the young woman leaving a pub in Darlington town centre to get a taxi but it pulled away just seconds before she reached the car after waiting for more than five minutes for his customer.

Moments later she walked across the road and got into Osmanzadeh’s Nissan Micra.

Jurors had heard how the rapist had been checking out websites for ‘escort sluts’ while he was sitting in his car in the town centre.

Osmanzadeh, of Durham Street, Bishop Auckland, denied rape and maintained that the sex was consensual.

The jury took two hours to consider its guilty verdict.

On the morning of sentence Osmanzadeh dismissed his legal counsel Julian Goode and continued to interrupt proceedings.

Judge Carroll sentenced him to 13 years in custody with an extended four-year licence period.