SHAME SHAME BIRMINGHAM DRIVER WHO RAPED ‘VULNERABLE’ WOMAN JAILED
A taxi driver who raped a “vulnerable” woman who had been out celebrating her birthday has been jailed for 11 1/2
years.
Mohammed Shabir picked her up outside a gay club in Birming- ham in the early hours of September 22, 2013.
The Mirror reports that Birmingham Crown Court heard she had had an argu- ment with her partner and was looking to get a taxi home. Shabir, 39, from Handsworth instead took the woman, who barely spoke English, to a quiet B&B in Erd-
ington where he sub- jected her to a humiliating rape ordeal. Shabir, who was con- victed of two charges of rape by a jury at the city’s crown court, was also ordered to register as a sex offender for life. Judge Murray Creed said: “She was clearly distressed when she encountered you in your taxi outside the club she had been visiting.
“I have no doubt that in her mind she thought she was get- ting into a taxi and that she would be going home.”
Mohammed Shabir
The defendant had initially driven to- wards Five Ways before then changing direction and going to the B&B.
During the journey Shabir had quizzed the victim about her sexual orientation. The judge continued:
“I am also satisfied as far as your culpability is concerned there was significant plan- ning. You phoned from your cab to the B&B and paid for a room. You were to say you had used it on previous occasions. “I also believe there
STOKE DRIVER JAILED FOR SEXUALLY ASSAULTING DRUNKEN FEMALE PASSENGER
Taxi driver Moham- med Shamraiz sexually assaulted a drunken woman in his cab.
The 31-year-old en- couraged the cus- tomer to sit in the front seat before he groped her breast. According to the Stoke Sentinel, Shamraiz, from Stoke, denied sexual assault but was con- victed by a jury after a trial at Stoke-on- Trent Crown Court last month.
Now the married dad has been jailed for eight months. The court heard the incident happened last year after her partner and child got out the cab, Sham- raiz encouraged her to move into the front passenger seat. He
66 Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court
took advantage of the fact she was drunk and groped her breast.
The defence urged the judge to deal with him by way of a com- munity order or a suspended sentence. But Recorder Adrian Reynolds said courts have to make an example of people who abuse their posi- tion.
Jailing Shamraiz, Recorder Reynolds
said: “You encour- aged her to sit in the front. Knowing that she was drunk and vulnerable you touched her sexually. “It was not the worst sexual assault by any means but it was still a gross invasion of her privacy and a gross abuse of your position.
“She had made a decision to get a taxi home thinking she would be safe. I have
no choice but to send you to prison. Women are expected to feel safe when they are in taxis. You have let down yourself and every other taxi driver. “I would be failing in my public duty if I do not send you to prison.”
Shamraiz will be on the sex offenders’ register for ten years. After the hearing, Cllr Conteh, Stoke-on- Trent City Council’s cabinet member for community safety, said: “Shamraiz had his licence suspended by the licensing com- mittee in July 2014 as soon as the charges were first brought. He returned his badge straight away. He has not been licensed to operate a taxi in the city since then..”
was an abuse of posi- tion of trust. She was entitled to believe she was in a vehicle that would be traceable. “I am also satisfied there was targeting of a vulnerable victim. The location was remote. It was on the opposite side of the city from where she lived.”
Once in the B&B the victim was subjected to a number of hours of “degradation and humiliation”, Shabir ignoring her pleas that she did not want to have sex. Judge Creed said Shabir had later tried to ring the woman
while she was making a complaint at a police station.
Although the number had come up as with- held, officers were able to trace Shabir who shortly after- wards, changed the taxi firm he worked for.
Rob Cowley, defend- ing, said there had been a certain degree of opportunism about the offence.
He went on: “He had been working as a taxi driver for a number of years, since 2002, without a single com- plaint received until this particular morn- ing.”
ROSSENDALE DRIVER JAILED FOR SEX ATTACK
A taxi driver found guilty of a sex attack on a teenager from Rossendale has been jailed. According to the Rossendale Free Press, Azhar Ikhlaq, 38, had denied two counts of sexual touching during a journey to Rawten- stall in 2013. However, a jury at Burnley Crown Count found him guilty on both counts following a two-day trial in June.
He was jailed for two years, given a ten- year sexual harm prevention order and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for ten years.
The court earlier heard how Ikhlaq ‘groped’ the male vic- tim before later being
‘strong and forceful’ in getting him to reciprocate.
Timothy Storrie, prosecuting, said Ikhlaq was responsi- ble for ‘acts of sexual misconduct against a young man’.
He told the court how the teenager was ‘drunk’ at the time but that he still knew what Ikhlaq ‘was about’.
He said: “He took a cab at that time to Rawtenstall. During the journey events took an unexpected turn when he began to make a series of unwelcome and sur- prising sexual overtures.”
When arrested Ikhlaq, from Burnley, told the police ‘noth- ing of the sort had occurred’.
OCTOBER 2015
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