Minicab driver accused of forcing male passenger to perform sex act while driving carTaxi driver accused of forcing male passenger to perform sex act while driving car
Private hire driver Khaldon Mohammed, 30, of Gwendoline Street in Toxteth has pleaded not guilty to raping a male passenger in Aigburth.
A minicab driver went on trial accused of forcing a male passenger to perform a sex act while driving his car.
Private hire driver Khaldon Mohammed, 30, of Gwendoline Street, Toxteth , denies raping the customer in his taxi in Aigburth in 2015.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Mohammed, a married dad, told police the man sexually assaulted him, but only by groping his genitals.
Arthur Gibson, prosecuting, said: “He now says it is true the customer performed a sex act on him, but that it was at all times consensual.
He said the customer was a gay man who had gone out and drunk around six bottles of lager, plus single glasses of champagne and whisky.
Mr Gibson said the man described himself as being drunk, but not so drunk that he did not know what he was doing.
The customer said he ordered a takeaway to be delivered to his home and then called
Delta Taxis.
The man said he got in the back of the car and Mohammed started a conversation, but he couldn’t hear him, so the driver invited him to climb into the front passenger seat.
Mr Gibson said: “The usual banter took a strange and what is clearly now a sinister turn, because the defendant started to ask him about his sexual orientation and came out with the question ‘do you like d***?’”
He said the journey continued, before Mohammed “suddenly” unzipped his jeans, “pulled” the man’s head down and “forced him” to perform a sex act.
Mr Gibson said the driver pushed him away when they stopped at red traffic lights, because people were around, before pulling his head down again.
He said after Mohammed finished, the journey ended and the man got out and ran into his home.
When arrested, Mohammed told police the man repeatedly put his hand down his trousers and groped him against his will, but insisted no sex acts took place.
Mohammed accepted he did not try to get the man out of his car, or seek help from his taxi firm or the police, despite driving past a police station.
However, Mr Gibson said that account was “untrue”, as the taxi driver now accepted a consensual sex act did take place, saying it was instigated by the customer.
He said he consented even though he had never had sexual relations with a man before and explained he was previously “too embarrassed” to admit it.
Mr Gibson said if it was consensual and started by the man, the jury might think he “arrived home in a happy and cheerful mood, paying for his taxi and possibly offering the defendant a large tip”.
He said the customer instead rushed inside without paying his fare and phoned a friend, telling her: “I need you.”
Mr Gibson said: “His voice was shaking, he went silent and then became hysterical, screaming down the phone ‘I’ve been raped’.”
His friend called police and when officers arrived, a policewoman described the man “crying hysterically” and retching when recalling what happened.
Mr Gibson asked the jury why, if Mohammed was telling the truth, did the man “feign distress”.
He said: “After all, to put it somewhat crudely but accurately, he had got exactly what he wanted.
“You may wonder if the defendant’s account is all true, why it is we are all here?”
(Proceeding)
source:
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liv ... e-12445718
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