THREE men have been jailed after they abducted a woman and subjected her a horrific series of 'brutal' rapes.

The traumatised victim told Teesside Crown Court how her life had been destroyed by the abuse she suffered at the hands of the three friends after she was picked up after a night out in Redcar.

The victim's ordeal started when she got into their car mistakenly believing it was a taxi before being taken to a flat where she was repeatedly assaulted in December last year.

Qader Ahmadi, 32, Aram Khudur Hussain, 30, and Darbaz Jalil Haje, 26, repeatedly raped the woman before letting her leave Ahmadi's flat to make her way home.

The court heard how Ahmadi drove to Haje's home, where he had been dropped off, to bring him back so he could join in.

In a victim impact statement, the woman told of the devastating impact the ordeal had on her life.

It read: "There is no part of me that this has not impacted upon.

"I feel that my independence has been taken away from me. I rely on members of my family to do things that I once used to do for myself.

"I do not sleep, I wake in the middle of the night after having nightmares and I constantly wash at all hours of the day."

She said the attack had resulted in the end of her marriage and she has been unable to return to work.

Ahmadi, of Harwal Road, Redcar, Hussain, of Cleveland Street, Redcar, and Darbaz Jalil Haje, of Cleveland Street, Redcar, were convicted following an eight day trial.

Judge Paul Watson QC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, sentenced the three defendants to 16 years in prison.

He said: "This was a horrific and terrifying ordeal.

"What she went through was almost unimaginable, it was a totally shocking crime.

"I cannot ignore the sheer terror she must have felt.

"It was a callous, brutal rape and false imprisonment of a vulnerable woman who was substantially intoxicated as she left a nightclub where you had been.”

Speaking after the hearing, Detective Sergeant Iona Leigh-Jones said: “The three men pre-meditated their actions and purposely allowed their victim believe that she was getting into a taxi, before taking her into an address and subjecting her to a horrendous and prolonged attack.

“The victim in this case has been extremely courageous, and I must commend her for her bravery throughout the investigation and judicial process.”