Taxi Driver Online

Birmingham Post

August 26, 2006, Saturday

HEADLINE: Jail for taxi rape of disabled woman

A private hire driver who brutally raped a disabled woman in the back of his car in Birmingham has been jailed for nine years.

The city's Crown Court heard that Mumtaz Hussain's victim, who only had one leg, could not escape because her artificial leg became trapped under a seat.

A jury took just 15 minutes to find Hussain 38 of Taunton Road, Sparkbrook, guilty of rape and assault by penetration.

In passing sentence, Miss Recorder Rachel Brand QC said: "This was a brutal, degrading and terrifying sex attack.

"When the city council gave you a private hire licence you were put in a position of trust towards the public and particularly women alone at night who ought to have been able to rely on you to take them home safely.

"What you did was a gross breach of trust.

"I am quite satisfied you knew this was a young girl, not a mature woman, and you knew she was a vulnerable girl with difficulties in walking.

"You may not have known the precise nature of her medical problems but you certainly knew she had problems with mobility.

"You sensed you could overpower her and an unpleasant feature of this case is that as you raped her her artificial leg was trapped under the front seat of the car."

The judge, who ordered Hussain register for life as a sex offender, also said that because he had claimed in his defence that the girl had been a willing party to a sordid and anonymous sexual encounter it showed that he did not have a shred of remorse for what he had done.
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