A MOTORIST who raped a teenage girl in his car after offering her a lift home was jailed for five years yesterday.

Restaurant worker Roziur Choudhury, a married father of four from Drakes Drive, St Albans, spotted the 17-year-old girl as he drove through Hemel Hempstead last October on his way home from work.

After persuading her to get in the car, he drove her to some garages where he then raped her on the back seat of the vehicle.

Choudhury, 40, had pleaded not guilty at St Albans Crown Court to raping the girl on the night of October 26, 2010, claiming it was with her consent

The court heard that on that evening she had been to the cinema in Hemel Hempstead with a friend and was walking home alone when Choudhury spotted her from behind the wheel of his car.

The girl said after pulling up in front of a garage block in Hemel Hempstead Choudhury told her to get onto the back seat where he joined her and then had sex with her against her will.

In the witness box, Choudhury tried to claim the girl had consented to sex and even instigated it after telling him “I am going to rape you.”

He said that after he picked her up they stopped the car and she had got into the back seat. Although he claimed to have told her she should be going, she continued to sit there and asked him to join her.

He claimed the girl then got on top of him, pinning him down and kissing him before they had sex. Choudhury was arrested the following night.

The court also heard that in September of last year Choudhury had received a caution from the Met police for kerb crawling.

The jury took just under four hours 40 minutes to find him guilty. Passing sentence, Judge Stephen Warner, told Choudhury: “She was young, naive and vulnerable and you took advantage of that and she was at your mercy within your car.”

By pleading not guilty, the judge said Choudhury had forced his victim to re-live her experience by having to give evidence.

In addition to the prison sentence of five years, Choudhury’s name will also be added to the Sex Offenders’ Register for an indefinite period.