Taxi driver on trial for passenger sex assaultsA TAXI driver has gone on trial accused of two sexual assaults which were carried out three years apart in Reigate.
Mohammed Iqbal, 34, of North Road in the town, is alleged to have lured two drunk women into his cab before assaulting them.
On Monday, Guildford Crown Court heard evidence that a DNA sample taken from the defendant in relation to an incident in March this year was linked back to an offence three years earlier.
Mr Iqbal denies kidnap, two allegations of committing an offence with the intention of carrying out a sex crime, sexual assault, assault by penetration and theft.
Simon Connolly, prosecuting, said the first victim was targeted on March 22, 2009.
Mr Connolly told the court the 25-year-old woman was out drinking in Reigate with her boyfriend and some other people, when she became separated from them.
"The defendant pulled up in a taxi," said the prosecutor.
He said that Iqbal told her that her party had hired a cab and he would drive her to meet up with them.
"She got into the cab," Mr Connolly added.
But then jurors heard that the vehicle was driven off in an unfamiliar direction, and Mr Iqbal was said to have tricked the woman into handing over her mobile phone before dropping it on the floor of the taxi.
"She was crying and extremely upset," said Mr Connolly.
"He then got angry with her and asked her 'Don't you trust me?'.
"He then started touching her leg and thigh and then tried to kiss her, putting his tongue inside her mouth.
"She was horrified by this. She wiped her mouth in disgust," Mr Connolly said.
The court heard that police carried out a DNA trace, "but at the time the defendant was not on the national database", Mr Connolly said.
He went on: "Eventually he stopped the cab and let her go."
'Very drunk' The woman's boyfriend told the court that the police were contacted after he became frantic about her disappearance and his inability to contact her by phone.
"I began to panic," he said.
The man told jurors how he was shellshocked when he finally saw his girlfriend again.
"She was a mess. She was covered in dirt. She was crying, terrified and shaking. It was awful to see her in such a state," he added.
On March 25 this year, a second woman fell into Mr Iqbal's clutches, Mr Connolly claimed.
He said she had also been on a night out and was "very drunk".
Mr Connolly said the woman and a friend were picked up by Mr Iqbal in his taxi.
He said the friend was dropped off first, leaving the complainant alone in the cab with the defendant.
"Her recollections were quite vague," Mr Connolly said, adding that she remembered having a sex act performed on her.
"She then remembers being dropped off. Her phone and purse were taken," he added.
The court was told Mr Iqbal was later traced through CCTV footage and that the purse and the phone were recovered from his vehicle.
"The phone was in the glove box of the car which meant that it had to have been put there by someone," said Mr Connolly.
He said a DNA sample taken from the defendant had then linked him to the previous incident in 2009.
The trial continues.
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/21207 ... x_assaults
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