"Help me. My Uber is wanting a kiss": Teen's 'nightmare' M62 ordeal over two hours in fake taxi

A teenager desperately texted her boyfriend as she was abducted by a fake taxi driver, saying in one message: "Help me. My Uber is wanting a kiss." Fitwi Tekeste, 29, spotted his victim alone a city centre in the early hours after she had enjoyed a night out with friends.

The restaurant worker then convinced her that he was her taxi driver and lured her into his car, a court heard. She was subsequently subjected to a 'nightmare' ordeal over nearly two hours as she was driven down the M62 and sexually assaulted.

A court heard this week the 19-year-old had been out celebrating a friend's birthday. At around 1am, she left a bar and attempted to book an Uber to take her to meet her boyfriend at McDonald's in Huyton, Liverpool.

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Arthur Gibson, prosecuting, described how the booking was unsuccessful. CCTV footage then showed her on Newington, a side street leading towards Renshaw Street in Liverpool city centre, while 'a bit unstable on her feet'. The same footage showed Tekeste initially parked up before moving his car towards Bold Street. He stopped as the teenager approached the area.

She was thereafter seen speaking to him before walking away again and waiting on a corner while looking at her phone. Tekeste, of Park Road in Toxteth, then parked up again and got out of his car to speak to her. The teen would ultimately follow him back to his car, initially attempting to enter the rear before sitting in the front passenger seat. Tekeste's car then left the area, reports The Echo.

Mr Gibson said: "What seems to have happened is that she agreed to allow him to take her home. When they get to the car, he convinces her to go and sit in the front seat. She is still under the impression, however, that this is her Uber."

The court heard during the journey, Tekeste 'tried to get her to kiss him'. He also placed his hand on her thigh and 'moved it up towards her crotch', as well as taking her hand and placing it on his trousers over his clothing 'more than once'. Tekeste continued eastbound along the M62 as far as Warrington. He eventually returned to Liverpool and dropped the woman off at her partner's home shortly before 3am, nearly two hours later.

Liverpool Crown Court heard another message she sent said: "Please be outside when I see you, I'm so scared". Tekeste was arrested after the teen's boyfriend alerted police.

He later told officers: "I'm an Uber driver. She said come in car but no money. She said pick me, I picked her. It's not my fault. I don't know who the girl is. She told me to go left, left, left on the highway. Pick me to my boyfriend's."

Mr Gibson added: "The Crown submit that he undoubtedly did lead her to believe that he was a taxi driver. The Crown submit that that amounts to an abuse of trust. She was a lone female. She had clearly been drinking."

In a statement read out to the court on her behalf, the teenager said: "I feel an impending sense of doom all the time. I get anxious all the time. I didn't realise how much of an impact this would have on me until I started to think about the future I was building until this happened. This incident has ruined my career and my life. It makes me angry and sad. I don't feel like I'll ever be able to get in a taxi. The thought of taking a taxi makes me so anxious."

Tekeste has no previous convictions. Paul Wood, defending, told the court his client had worked as a kitchen porter at Maray on Bold Street for around a year prior to the incident, with the married man having finished his shift at the restaurant shortly beforehand.

He added: "It was always his case that he had been working beforehand. He was not laying in wait. I am not going to play down what this defendant did. This defendant must have been targeting someone who was vulnerable. We have a young lady at night who has consumed alcohol.

Mr Wood said Tekeste had been granted a five-year leave to remain in the UK back in 2021, telling the court: "He is from Eritrea. It is a military dictatorship. His parents died when he was young.

Tekeste admitted one count sexual assault, with a further count of kidnap being ordered to lie on the file. He was jailed for 45 months on Thursday. Sentencing, Judge Neil Flewitt KC said: "She was vulnerable because she was alone in the city centre late at night and because she was affected by the alcohol which she had drank that evening. You saw that she was alone and vulnerable and you decided to take advantage of the situation.

"She mistakenly thought that you were her taxi driver. Whether you put that idea in her mind or took advantage of her misunderstanding does not matter, because you deceived her and encouraged or allowed her to get into your car believing that she would be safe with you.

"You did not take her home. You took her on a journey that lasted approximately two hours, going far beyond where she wanted to go. During the course of that journey, you repeatedly sexually assaulted her. She must have been terrified, fearing that something far worse might happen to her." Tekeste was ordered to sign the sex offenders' register for life.