SHAME SHAME BURTON DRIVER JAILED FOR TEN YEARS FOR RAPE
A taxi driver has been jailed for ten years after being found guilty of rape.
Shanzad Akram, 32, from Burton, had denied raping a woman and claimed they had consensual sex in the front of his cab.
The jury had previ- ously heard from the victim, who is in her 20s, that she had been drunk and had fallen asleep in the taxi but had woken to find Akram raping her, not far from her home in Woodville. But Akram said that during the journey she put her hand
down his trousers, got on to his lap and undid his trousers and they had sex. The woman had told an interviewing police officer that whilst he was raping her she had kept her eyes closed to “pretend it wasn’t happening”. Asked by the officer why she had kept her eyes closed, she said she was “scared” and by pretending it was not happening it would make it not real.
When he finally dropped her off, Akram demanded more cash because her friend had hand-
Shanzad Akram
ed over only £7 for the fare when leaving her at the taxi rank. The victim said that when she let herself into her house she had been hysterical and she felt angry at herself for not doing
OXFORD DRIVER WEEPS IN COURT AS HE IS CONVICTED OF RAPE
A taxi driver who picked up two women stranded in Oxford wept uncontrollably when he was convict- ed of raping one of them while she was asleep at his house. Axccording to the Oxford Mail, Oxford Crown Court heard that the young women had been on a night out in the city when they missed their bus home. The girls had called Abul Chowdhury after two young men tried to get them to stay overnight at a hotel with them.
The judge said: “I accept that you answered a call from the girls. They need- ed your help.” The jury were told 36- year-old Chowdhury had offered the girls breakfast at his home
64
in Witney. When they arrived at the house, the women went to bed; one in the spare room and the other in Chowdhury’s room. Prosecuting, Michael Shaw said one of the women woke up to find Chowdhury rap- ing her.
The married father denied the rape and a further count of assault by penetra- tion on the other girl. But the jury found him guilty of rape by a majority verdict last month after nearly six and a half hours of deliberation. He was acquitted of the sec- ond charge.
Chowdhury descend- ed into uncontrollable sobs after the verdict. Judge Peter Ross told Chowdhury that he accepted the attack was not pre-
planned and he had not lured the women to his home with the offer of breakfast to entrap them.
Jailing him for ten years, he said: “There was nothing whatso- ever that had oc- curred that night which would have given you the slight- est idea that she welcomed any sexual attention. Because she was asleep she was particularly vul- nerable.”
Judge Ross said Chowdhury had lied to police when he claimed the girl had “raped” him. He added: “You allowed yourself to be over- come by your sexual desire.”
Chowdhury will also have to sign the sex- ual offenders’ register for life.
anything at the time. After the woman went to the police, Akram was arrested and interviewed – he denied the offence and answered “no comment” to all the questions put to him.
However, last month a jury at Derby Crown Court unanimously found him guilty after a week-long trial. Jailing Akram, Judge Ebrahim Mooncey said: “This is a case where you were accused of raping a woman, at the time you were working as a taxi driver in Burton and it was about 5am when she came to your taxi accompa- nied by her friend. “Because of her con- dition she was unable to talk to you directly but her friend gave you her address and gave you £7.”
Judge Mooncey said
Akram had taken her down a country lane because “she was completely and utter- ly out of it”. “You decided to take advantage of the situ- ation and rape her, and rape her you did.”
He said the woman had been “complete- ly and utterly dev- astated” by what Akram had done to her.
Akram must sign the sex offenders’ regis- ter indefinitely and he was barred for life from taking a job which would bring him into contact with lone females.
LIVERPOOL DRIVER JAILED AFTER £20,000 OF COCAINE FOUND IN CAR
A taxi driver was jailed for four years after £20,000 of cocaine was found hidden in his car. Lesley Whitehall, 45, was seen “visibly shaking and extreme- ly nervous” when his Ford Mondeo was stopped by police on the M6 in Cumbria, between Penrith and Carlisle.
Whitehall told an offi- cer he was travelling north to visit a friend in Scotland on Sep- tember 11 last year. But when his vehicle was impounded and searched, 125g of high-strength cocaine was found concealed beneath the gear stick.
The drug had a purity of 79 per cent - well in excess of the 10- 15 per cent average street purity.
A police expert con- cluded that the drug could have been bulked out signifi- cantly to almost half a kilogram. This would have given it an esti- mated street value of almost £20,000. Whitehall denied a charge of possessing class A cocaine with intent to supply. But after a trial at Carlisle Crown Court, White- hall, from Liverpool, was convicted unani- mously by a jury. The jury heard taxi driver Whitehall was off-duty when he was stopped by police while travelling north in a vehicle which bore a Sefton plate. The prosecution said: “He got his phone out and said ‘Chris will tell you she is expect- ing me’. The police officer took the
phone and spoke to a male on the other end. “The officer said ‘are you expecting Les?’, but the male replied ‘I don’t know what you are talking about’ and put the phone down.” Jurors heard White- hall was in dire financial straits. Following his convic- tion, Recorder Murray told Whitehall: “The trade in class A drugs is a really serious problem within socie- ty. It often brings about addiction, vio- lence and associated criminal offences, ill- ness for users and occasionally death. “There must be an immediate custodial term of some length - there is no alternative because of the seri- ousness of what you have done.”
OCTOBER 2015
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96
