A callous bouncer who raped a young woman and abandoned her unconscious body at the edge of the River Mersey after covering her with leaves and fronds today received a nine-year jail sentence.

A judge told Yassar Murat Ayuc: “You are a dangerous sexual predator and a dangerous liar.”

He ruled that he poses a significant risk of serious harm by committing further sexual offences and imposed a nine-year term behind bars with an extended licence of five years.

Ayuc picked up the 32-year-old woman in his car outside a Birkenhead nightclub in the early hours of the morning and immediately took her on a six-minute ride to a secluded location in Rock Ferry.

Judge Brian Cummings, QC, said he strongly suspected he had earlier been hanging around outside clubs in Liverpool looking for a vulnerable woman rather than just talking to doormen as he had claimed.

He said “I am perfectly sure, however, that was why you were in Birkenhead.

"It is no coincidence you left outside the club and headed in the direction of your car over the road in Argyle Street immediately after the woman had crossed the road."

“Clearly her vulnerable condition was obvious and you targeted her intending to rape her.

"The location was already part of the plan and you had identified it as an ideal place to commit rape because it is a secluded site.

“You took her to a remote location where you knew it was highly unlikely to be interrupted or seen and abandoned her knowing the same factors would make it difficult for her to raise the alarm and get help either quickly or at all.”

She had used her mobile phone 20 minutes earlier to get an address to show when getting a taxi.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that her mobile and wallet have never been recovered but the judge said he could not be sure that 49-year-old Ayuc had taken them.

“During the rape she played dead and lay motionless face down on the ground," said the judge.

"Once you had finished the rape she was aware of you panicking and covering her over with leaves and probably broken weed fronds.

“You left her face down apparently in an unconscious statute the top of a slip way into a tidal river. You could have made an anonymous to emergency services - but you simply abandoned her to her fate.

“You showed no regard for her at all.

"You treated her in an appalling, callous and cowardly way.”

He ordered Ayuc, of no fixed address, who showed no emotion, to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life.

He had denied rape but was convicted after a six-day trial.

The jury was told that after she heard his car driving off after the rape she went looking for help, making her way onto Rock Ferry bypass where a taxi driver found the distressed victim at 5.10am on June 5 last year.

Ayuc, a licensed Liverpool hackney cab driver, has a conviction for soliciting - and the court heard he had been allowed to keep his cab licence after just a month’s suspension.

Martine Snowden, defending, said the victim was drunk and disinhibited.

“She put herself in a position of danger,” she said.

In an impact statement the victim said she now only feels safe at home and had not been able to return to work and suffers from nightmares.

Police commend victim's bravery