A serial sex offender who used his Mercedes as a hunting vehicle to “prowl” the streets of Liverpool city centre for vulnerable teenage girls on nights out has been jailed for 23 years after being unmasked as a predatory impostor who posed as a taxi driver.

Amponsah Thompson, a 29-year-old with leave to remain in the United Kingdom, was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court today after a harrowing catalogue of offences against three young women, two of them aged just 18, between August 2024 and 2025.

The court heard that the Ghanaian national operated with chilling calculation, trawling the city’s nightlife districts in his white Mercedes, searching for lone, intoxicated teenagers before striking.

The first attack came in August 2024, when an 18-year-old woman left a night out shortly after 2 am after visiting popular bars including Heebie Jeebies and Lost in Seel Street. Heavily drunk and separated from her friends, she approached Thompson’s car near the former Alma de Cuba venue, now St Peter’s Tavern, and asked if he was a taxi driver.

Prosecutor David Polglase told the court that Thompson “lied and pretended that he was.” Believing she was being taken home, the teenager climbed into the vehicle. Instead, he drove her to his own address on Rocky Lane in Tuebrook, where he joined her in the back seat and touched her between her thighs.

She escaped further violation only by pretending her family was phoning and that she had shared her location with them. Thompson stopped and drove her home. She later insisted on paying him, a fatal mistake for her attacker—bank transfers allowed police to trace him directly.

When interviewed, Thompson denied pretending to be a taxi driver, claiming he had only stopped at his home to collect identification. He insisted there had been no physical contact and that he had never entered the back seat. He was released on bail.

But he did not stop. In December 2024, while still under investigation, Thompson prowled again. He found another 18-year-old woman, described by the prosecution as “extremely drunk and vulnerable,” slumped by a wall in the city centre after a night that had taken her to a Wetherspoon pub, McCooley’s and Soho.

Separated from her friends, she was seen being escorted back to his vehicle at around 3.30am. She later recalled “zoning in and out of sleep” and waking up at his flat, where she had been raped.

Thompson drove her home the next day. He later claimed the sexual activity had been consensual, but a jury convicted him of one count of rape following a trial.

Throughout 2025, as detectives continued their work, Thompson preyed upon a third victim, raping her an estimated six or seven times. He also subjected her to violent assaults and threatened her with a knife. Mr Polglase told the court: “We say that this defendant is manipulative. He is a sexual predator. He has little or no regard for the boundaries of and consent for sex.”

The court heard that while Thompson had no previous convictions, he had been investigated in January 2024 over an allegation that he sexually assaulted a lap dancer, though the woman later withdrew her complaint and no charges were brought.

Defence barrister Anthony O’Donohoe urged the court to remember that his client was previously a man of good character with no criminal record, adding that his immigration status was “subject to review.” He asked for a sentence “as short as is consistent with your honour’s public duty.”

But Judge Brian Cummings KC was unmoved. Sentencing Thompson, who appeared via video link from HMP Liverpool wearing a white Puma t-shirt, the judge declared him a dangerous offender.

“There would remain a significant risk to members of the public of serious harm at the point that you would have otherwise served a fixed term sentence,” he said. He added that deportation was a matter for the appropriate authority, making no order himself but leaving the door firmly open.

Thompson was jailed for 23 years, with an additional eight years on licence. He must serve two thirds of the 23-year term before becoming eligible for release by the Parole Board, and he will sign the sex offenders’ register for life.

He had admitted sexual assault against his first victim and three counts of rape against the third.