Man jailed for 8 years for locking nurse in car boot

A man who abducted a nurse and left her tied up in the boot of her own car for 10 days has been sentenced to at least eight years in jail.

Magdeline Makola, 38, was found dehydrated and on the point of death when she was found by police locked in the boot of her own Vauxhall Astra car on Boxing Day last year.

Justice Ngema, 35, from South Africa, who admitted abducting and assaulting the nurse in April, was given an eight-year jail term at the High Court in Glasgow and told he will remain in prison for longer if it is ruled he still poses a risk.

Judge Lord Menzies said the ordeal had been the "stuff of nightmares" for his victim, the Press Association reported.

"I cannot imagine a greater disregard for another human being than the way you treated your victim," he said.

Makola, from Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland, vanished after leaving work at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on December 15. Concern was raised when she failed to turn up to work three days later, and she was finally found in Airdrie, Lanarkshire.

Ngema, who was in Britain illegally having been deported in 2002, had previously appeared at his victim's home, and, on the day she was abducted, had invited himself in and asked for a drink.

He then threatened Makola, who was also born in South Africa, with a knife, punched her in the head, bound her, and forced her to hand over details of her bank cards.

Ngema then used her cards to go on a shopping spree, taking trips with his girlfriend, buying champagne and visiting bars.

Meanwhile Makola was bound and gagged in the boot of her own car in temperatures that fell to sub-zero.

She was forced to urinate in the car and began losing consciousness. When police found her on December 26 she had no food or water, was screaming from pain, and had renal failure because of muscle damage and dehydration.

"What you (Ngema) did was that you inflicted a truly dreadful physical and mental ordeal on a young woman who had done you no harm at all and who you appeared to have known only as an acquaintance," Menzies said.

"It's quite remarkable that she survived for so long. If the weather conditions had been different or she had not been so strong she could have died."

He recommended that Ngema be deported on his release from prison.