Private Hire Driver Jailed After Sexual Assaults On 4 Female Passengers

A private hire driver who groped four female passengers in three incidents over a four year period has been jailed for 24 months.

Hussain Rahman, who is said to be religious with a ‘deep faith’, abused his position as a Minicab driver to prey on drunk women as he drove them home in his car at night.

And on the final occasion the 51-year-old picked on a woman who was not drunk, making obscene, suggestive, comments to her as he stroked her leg.

Rahman, of Lansbury Drive, Upper Stratton, pleaded not guilty to four counts of sexual assault but was convicted by a jury following a trial at Swindon Crown Court.

He first targeted one of his fares after picking up three friends who had been out on the town in November 2012.

The 18-year-old victim, who he had seen being sick, got in the front while her two drunken pals were arguing in the back, leaving them unaware of what he was up to.

Rahman put his hand on her chest, squeezing her breast over her clothing, leaving the teenager traumatised for years.

Just over two years later, in January 2015, he was driving two women home after they had also been drinking heavily, one so much so that she could recall nothing.

The defendant put his hand inside her trousers and touched her friend’s breast under her clothing as the victims were trapped in the cab.

His final victim, who has worked in the past as a carer, was picked up in the early hours of Saturday August 6 last year from a friend’s house.

Soon after pulling away he said ‘You need a man with a big penis’ as he rubbed her thigh close to her groin area.

The woman, who had only had a couple of beers, said she was repeatedly pushing him away and would have told him to stop the car and let her out were it not the early hours of the morning.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, said all four of the women had suffered as a result of the ordeals they had been put through.

Referring to their victim personal statements he said one told how she could not use public transport, let alone Minicabs, as a result of her ordeal.

Another said she had been a victim of a sex attack in the past and feared he was going to be taken away and raped.

A third spoke of how she was horrified to have been accused by him of being racist and damaging his car, when in reality she was the victim.

James Tucker, defending, said that his client had been regarded as a low risk of reoffending and would never be able to work as a private hire driver again.

Although the case passed the custody threshold he urged any jail term to be suspended saying he has diabetes and had done a good job raising his family.

Jailing him for two years Judge Robert Pawson said “You are now 51 years old. You are a religious man with a strong faith.

“Over the course of four years or so when you were working as a Minicab driver, you used your position and the vulnerability of drunk women out late at night to sexually assault them.

“You as a Minicab driver driving members of the public around at night are in a relationship, an ad hoc relationship it may be, of trust to your fares whether there is one of them, two of them or three of them: but particularly when one.

“I have considered you case very, very, carefully but it seems to me given all the circumstances it would be quite wrong of me to suspend the sentence.”

As a result of the two year jail term he will have to register as a sex offender for the next 10 years.

Source : Swindon Advertiser. 

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT : 

It appears there has been a misprint in the recent copy of the LTDA's Taxi paper, in regards to the next LTDA branch meeting. 

The meeting will take place at the Horse Shoe, 24 Clerkenwell Close, EC1R OAG at 7pm on the 8th November. 

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