Man sentenced in kept-in-boot case

12 April 2012

An illegal immigrant who abducted a nurse and left her tied up in the boot of her own car is being sentenced.

Justice Ngema, 35, used his victim's bank cards to fund a Christmas shopping spree and to drink champagne with friends while his victim lay shivering in sub-zero temperatures in the car in Airdrie, Lanarkshire.

Magdeline Makola, 38, spent up to 10 days locked in the boot before she was found dehydrated and suffering from hypothermia on Boxing Day last year.

South African-born Ms Makola had not been seen since she left work at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on December 15.

Ngema, who was in the country using his brother's passport, had only known his victim briefly before the attack at her home in Livingston, West Lothian, last December.

At a hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh in April he pleaded guilty to 14 charges, including theft from a cash machine and a string of frauds using Ms Makola's bank cards at designer shops in the run up to Christmas.

He will be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow.

Despite her ordeal - which left her with scars and nerve damage - Ms Makola said she felt no anger towards Ngema, and that her faith in God helped her through the trauma.

In a statement read by police outside court on her behalf in April, she said: "I am pleased that Justice Ngema has pleaded guilty and I want people to know that I feel no anger towards him, only pity. I wish him well in the future and I will pray for him."

Ms Makola was reported missing on December 18 when she failed to turn up for her shift. An investigation was launched and the nurse was discovered by police in her red Vauxhall Astra in Airdrie.

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