IN THE NEWS TEENAGER FOUND GUILTY OF


FALSELY ACCUSING DERBY CABBIE OF SEXUAL ASSAULT


A teenager collapsed in court as she was con- victed of falsely accusing a taxi driver of sexually assaulting her. As a jury at the trial of Rosie Waggett returned the unanimous guilty verdict, after deliberat- ing for less than an hour, the 18-year-old fell to the floor, crying uncontrollably.


Judge David Pugsley said he believed the image of cab driver Mohammed Afsar, who broke down in tears in the witness stand during the trial, “would haunt the memory of the jury for a very long time”.


During the trial, the jury heard how Waggett claimed the driver had grabbed her thigh on a taxi jour- ney home and made sexual remarks. She made the allega- tion at about 6.30am on January 17. Mr Afsar was arrested shortly afterwards and kept in police custody for nine hours.


The Derby Evening Telgraph reports that Judge Pugsley said: “This was not an alle- gation of rape, it was an allegation of sexual assault but the nature of such allegations always have grave


consequences. It is likely he would have lost his liberty and almost definitely his taxi job.” Remanding Waggett in custody, Judge Pugsley said her actions had been “callous, clinical, warped and wicked” and he could see no alternative to custody. She will be sentenced next month. Waggett had told police that Mr Afsar had grabbed her leg and said: “If I don’t get my money off you, I don’t get sex off my wife. If I don’t get sex off her then I have to get it somewhere.”


Abi Joyce, prosecut- ing, said the teenager only had 49p when she got into the taxi and had told an acquaintance that if she was made to pay the full fare she would say the driver had tried to rape her. Troy Muir, the acquain- tance, told the jury: “She said she didn’t have any money, so I asked how she was going to pay for the taxi. She said, ‘well if he (the taxi driver) asks me about the money I’ll just say he tried to rape me.’” Later,


Miss Joyce, while cross-examining


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Waggett, said: “You planned all along to make the allegation against whichever taxi driver turned up that night to avoid having to pay the fare and you were drunk.” Waggett, of Ednaston


Avenue,


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Littleover,


denied perverting the course of justice and maintained she was telling the truth about the assault. She also denied making the comments to Mr Muir and being drunk.


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