AN illegal mini-cab driver who raped a woman in the back of his cab is due to be sentenced today.

Astor Newton Murray picked up a 22-year-old woman in Shoreditch in November 2003, pestering her to accept his offer of a lift.

The 49-year-old, of Chichester Road, Edmonton, drove her to a deserted industrial estate and began taking off his trousers and unbuttoning his shirt.

When the woman, who had been out with friends that night, tried to get out of the car, she found the doors were locked and she could not escape.

Murray then raped and indecently assaulted the woman on the back seat of his unlicensed cab.

Murray then tried to drive the woman to her home in south London after the attack, but she fled the car when it pulled up at a set of traffic lights.

Forensic evidence was examined but Murray was not on the DNA database and could not be traced in connection with the rape.

However, he was arrested last year for touted unlicensed mini-cab services and for assault, and his DNA was linked to the 2003 attack.

Murray denied rape and indecent assault but was convicted at the Old Bailey yesterday and is due to be sentenced this morning.