UBER SHAME
UBER DRIVER JAILED FOR 54 MONTHS FOR KIDNAP AND SEXUAL ASSAULT OF MANCHESTER PASSENGER
An Uber driver kidnapped and sexually assaulted a vulnerable woman before dumping her miles away from her home. Mdsultan Mahamud subjected the woman, in her 20s, to a terrifying ordeal after he picked her up after a night out in Manchester. Instead of dropping her off at home in Salford, Mahamud, 36, kissed her then locked the doors when she rebuffed his unwanted advances. He began driving around Manchester and reached back in the car to sexually assault her. About half an hour after being abducted, Mahamud dumped her in Rochdale, Minshull Street Crown Court heard. Her ordeal was made worse by the fact she’d already been the victim of a ‘violent stranger rape’ the year before, after being attacked while she walked home. Mahamud, from Rochdale, was jailed for four-and-a-half years. “It doesn’t bear thinking about what the complainant went through over that course of time, the anguish and fear she must have suffered following her experience the year before,” Judge Angela Nield said as she locked him up. The victim, who has since moved abroad, said she had put her ‘trust’ in Uber, and after being raped she had taken taxis rather than walking to try and keep safe. “I put my trust in this service as I thought it would be the safest option,” she said. Mahamud had kept the details of the case a secret from his heavily pregnant wife until the day he was sentenced and sent to prison. The
PHTM NOVEMBER 2022
judge said she was an ‘unintended victim’ of Mahamud. Prosecutors told how the woman had been out with friends in August 2020 and decided to order an Uber to take her home. After she got in Mahamud’s vehicle he began speaking about ‘intimate’ sexual details between him and his wife, and how she ‘wouldn’t perform certain sexual acts’ with him. She tried to ‘humour’ him and eventually he arrived outside her home. Mahamud then told the woman she was ‘lovely’ and asked for her number, prosecutor Mark Kellet said. He asked her for a kiss, and she didn’t respond. Mahamud then grabbed her by the shirt, took off her mask and kissed her on the lips. He asked her to go back to his house but she said she had to go home as she had work. But Mahamud refused to take no for an answer and drove off. The doors had been locked and she was left helpless. She was able to text her friend to raise the alarm. “I felt really scared at the time”, the woman later recalled in a statement. “I didn’t know if he had a weapon, I didn’t know what his plans were.” As he drove, Mahamud reached back and sexually assaulted her. “She feared she was going to be raped again,” Mr Kellet said.
Terrified, she sent desperate texts to her friend begging for help. “He has kidnapped me,” she said. “I don’t know what to do, I’m so scared. I can’t do this again.” During her ordeal, she was able to take pictures and videos of Mahamud. She could be heard to say: “I want to go home. Can I get out now? Please drop me, please.” Mahamud said she could ‘enjoy herself’ and then he would drop her off. About half an hour after initially picking her up, Mahamud eventually unlocked the doors and let her leave the car. She was left in Rochdale, miles away from her home, with no idea where she was. A passerby let her use his phone and she rang 999. Mahamud was arrested and at first claimed that no sexual assault had taken place. He was forced to admit that it had after being shown the videos, but then lied again and said she had instigated it and the encounter was consensual. The woman said the attack was a contributing factor to her decision to leave the country, and it has left her scared of using taxis. She said: “I don’t feel safe going anywhere alone anymore.” Defending, Mark Fireman described the attack by Mahamud, who had no previous similar convictions, as a ‘moment of madness’. “This bizarre and foolish episode, that showed a complete and utter lack of judgement, is going to cost him and his family very dearly indeed,” he said. Mahamud pleaded guilty to kidnap and sexual assault. He was ordered to sign the sex offender’s register for life.
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