Brentford man jailed for Osterley rape

Refugee rapist sentenced to seven years

A Kosovan refugee from Brentford who raped and nearly smothered a Polish woman to whom he offered a lift, was jailed for seven years and recommended for deportation.

Driton Shkoza, 28, of Town Meadow, Brentford, picked up the 28 year-old woman as she waited at a bus stop outside Ealing Broadway Station in the early hours of March 7 last year.

He left her bleeding, bruised and traumatised in an Osterley car park less than an hour later.

"The defendant said he knew her and she thought he might have been a customer in a cafe where she used to work in Wood Green," prosecutor Rosie Burns told an earlier trial at Isleworth Crown Court.

"She told him she was going to her boyfriend's home in Greenford and he offered her a lift which she declined at first. Eventually she agreed and they went to his car parked in Windsor Road."

After a while she noticed he was driving in the wrong direction and he drove her to the car park of Osterley Rugby Club where she tried to get away.

Ms Burns said: "He dragged her back in to the car causing injuries to her legs and cuts in her trousers. He blocked her nose and her mouth with his hands causing her difficulty in breathing as he forced her down onto the back seat of the car where he raped her," said Ms Burns.

When he had finished and his victim begged him to let her go, he offered her a lift home. But she got out of the car and "in an emotional state", and flagged down a motorist who called the police.

When the traumatised victim was examined, Shkoza's DNA was found and eventually it was matched with DNA taken from him over an immigration offence in September.

Shkoza denied raping the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and claimed they had sex with her consent. But the jury found him guilty.

Defence counsel, Anthony Dalgleish, said Shkoza came from a difficult Albanian background in Kosovo where members of his family were still missing.

Jailing him, Judge Hezlett Colgan said: "You were convicted on the clearest possible evidence. Rape is always a serious matter and this had aggravating features. You used excessive force to restrain your victim when she tried to escape and you threatened to kill her if she didn't comply."

June 20 2006