
A shop worker who held a woman captive and raped her when she came in to charge her phone has been jailed.
Swapnil Kulat, 30, of no fixed abode, was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court after pleading guilty to rape, false imprisonment and causing actual bodily harm.
The court heard that on 19 March a woman went into a shop on Wilmslow Road in Withington and asked Kulat if she could briefly charge her phone inside.
After she plugged her phone in, Kulat locked up the shop, became aggressive and refused to allow her to leave.
He hit the woman in the face and the body with a wooden pole repeatedly, causing serious bruising and swelling.
Kulat then demanded that she went into the store room, where he raped her before falling asleep.
He was sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison.