A TAXI driver who picked up two women stranded in Oxford wept uncontrollably when he was convicted of raping one of them while she was asleep at his house.

A court heard the young women had been on a night out in the city when they missed their bus home.

Judge Peter Ross told Oxford Crown Court the girls called Abul Chowdhury after two young men tried to get them to stay overnight at a hotel with them.

The judge said: “I accept that you answered a call from the girls. They needed your help.

“They had been duped into going to the Holiday Inn at the Pear Tree roundabout with two young men.”

A jury of six men and six women were told 36-year-old Chowdhury had offered the girls breakfast at his home in Witney. When they arrived at the house in Blakes Avenue, the women went to bed; one in the spare room and the other in Chowdhury’s room.

Prosecuting, Michael Shaw said one of the women woke up to find Chowdhury raping her.

The married father denied the rape and a further count of assault by penetration on the other girl.

But the jury found him guilty of rape by a majority verdict yesterday after nearly six-and-a-half hours of deliberation. He was acquitted of the second charge.

Sarah Buckingham, defending, said her client’s marriage had now broken up and his family was living in Wales.

She added: “He has lived in this country and been industrious and hardworking since 2006.

“It was an isolated incident, no violence was used to carry out the attack.

“No doubt custody will be hard for him.”

Chowdhury descended into uncontrollable sobs after the verdict.

Judge Ross told Chowdhury that he accepted the attack was not pre-planned and he had not lured the women to his home with the offer of breakfast to entrap them.

Jailing him for 10 years, he said: “There was nothing whatsoever that had occurred that night which would have given you the slightest idea that she welcomed any sexual attention.

“Because she was asleep she was particularly vulnerable.”

Judge Ross said Chowdhury had lied to police when he claimed the girl had “raped” him.

He added: “You allowed yourself to be overcome by your sexual desire.”

Chowdhury will also have to sign the sexual offenders’ register for life.