A taxi driver who raped and sexually assaulted four young women has been jailed for 14 years. Ruhen Miah, 42, from Newbury, pleaded guilty at Reading Crown Court to a series of attacks between 1 January and 24 February in the Berkshire town.
A psychiatric expert for the defence described him as a "highly dangerous man" at the time. Dr Michael Alcock said Miah had been suffering from "adjustment disorder" after losing his restaurant business.
Calling the married father of three's actions "monstrous", he added: "This behaviour was completely out of character."
Alan Blake, prosecuting, told the court Miah's victims were all vulnerable through drink when they got into his cab in the early hours. Three of the women were attacked inside his vehicle and he carried a fourth into a block of flats over his shoulder "in a fireman's lift". She was raped inside an apartment that police later discovered belonged to a friend of Miah's who was out of the country at the time.
Miah was tracked down by detectives after two of the women reported being attacked by a taxi driver in the town, police said. Examination of footage from the dashcam inside his car revealed further attacks on two other women.
Sentencing him, Judge Angela Morris said: "You took vulnerable females into your clutches for your own sexual gratification. They were defenceless and all were extremely intoxicated."
She added his offending was "concerning and inexplicable".
West Berkshire Council said: "All required checks were completed including the disclosure and barring service check. None of those checks indicated any grounds for concern."
Miah pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault, one count of rape and one count of attempted rape.
