A man was jailed for eight years last week for his part in the rape of a woman in New Southgate in March 2001.

The victim, a 35-year-old housewife, had been shopping in Bowes Road, New Southgate, when she was grabbed from behind and dragged into a doorway by a man.

The Old Bailey heard that Sivaganasdran Sivendran, 36, an asylum seeker from Sri Lanka, was waiting by the doorway, while the man took the woman upstairs into a bedsit the two men shared.

Sivendran then held the woman down, encouraging his friend while he raped her. Sivendran then raped the woman.

She was kept prisoner in the bedsit for 15 hours and subjected to a further rape and other sexual assaults before she managed to escape the following morning.

Sivendran fled to Leicester and was tracked down two years later. The second man has not been found.

Sivendran was convicted of rape, but cleared of false imprisonment by a jury on Thursday last week.

Sentencing Sivendran, Judge Christopher Moss QC told him: "The jury has found you were not party to the detention of this woman. But rather than help her, you took your own advantage of her situation of fear and distress. Your conduct was quite disgraceful."

Sivendran will be deported upon completion of his sentence.

April 7, 2003 14:30