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Terrified Jemima Khan says she's been forced to move home after suffering months of harassment from Hailo driver who called her more than 1,000 times when she used black cab app
A terrified Jemima Khan has been forced to move house after an obsessed black cab driver bombarded her with messages after saving her mobile phone number. Hassan Mahhmood, 27, became besotted with the journalist after she agreed to pose for a picture with him as he dropped her off from a night out with friends at Ronnie's jazz club in London last year. Over the course of a year he sent 203 text messages and called the campaigner 1,182 times, telling her he was in love with her and he wanted to be her friend.
Mahhmood, a black cab driver who also worked for the Hailo app, harvested her number when she booked a taxi in June 2016. Ms Khan, the daughter of late billionaire tycoon Sir James Goldsmith, repeatedly blocked his number - but he changed numbers 18 times. She did not go to police for fear he would 'take revenge' if he lost his job or was arrested, a court heard. He later claimed he was a big fan of Ms Khan because she was married to Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan, who was his 'hero'.
At Isleworth Crown Court today, Mahhmood admitted harassment between June last year and July 2017, which carries a six month maximum jail term. He denied one count of stalking, which was left to lie on file. The case is likely to be an embarrassment for black cab drivers who have condemned the way the social media app Uber is run.
Sentencing was adjourned until October 26, and meanwhile Mahhmood was handed a five-year restraining order.
In a victim impact statement read out in court, Ms Khan described had left her increasingly anxious. 'The incident has made me increasingly anxious. At times I would be home alone, and he would call me several times, and text repeatedly late at night. 'Sometimes he said in texts that he would come to my house. That would really frighten me. 'I would ask friends to stay. Often I would hear noises and not sleep. I have found it hard to sleep and that disrupts my work the next day.
'I have on occasions asked my sons to come home from wherever they are, because I am scared. I am nervous when I book a cab through Hailo from now on in case it's him. 'I feel extremely vulnerable and scared as a single woman. As a result, I am planning to reluctantly move house. He seems to have increasingly become unstable and unpredictable, and I am worried about what he will do. 'For a year I put up with the repeated texts and calls, because I was afraid if he lost his job or was arrested he would take his revenge on me.
'I was so scared that as Hassan Mahhmood knew where I lived, if he couldn't get through to my phone number, it would make it more likely that he would turn up at my house, which was my biggest fear. 'I blocked his number 18 times. I kept hoping he would give up calling me.' 'I was so scared': Ms Khan, who has had high profile relationships with Hugh Grant and Russell Brand, said she was left frightened for her safety by the year-long ordeal
Ruxana Nasser, prosecuting, said: 'He said his name was Hassan, that he recognised her and started a conversation with her in the car while he was driving. 'He then requested that if he could take a picture with her, a photo. And she obliged, and he took a photo with her on the night outside the cab. 'And it seems that he dropped her friend later, and dropped her first.' Following that, as he had her number through the cab company, he started from June 19 to call her multiple times, 'often at night'. The messages told her 'that he wants to meet her, that he wants to be friends with her', the prosecutor said.
Ms Nasser said: 'In some he says that he considers her as a mother, and respects her and calls her Bhabhi. It's a term for a sister-in-law used in Pakistan. 'So he is totally obsessed with her, and wants to meet her. To the extent the last few text messages in this year, July 2017, consist of him wanting to come and visit her. 'The fear of that prompted her to contact the police after several months of enduring the distress he put her through. It was her sheer kindness of not reporting him in the first instance.'
In the messages, he also told her that 'he loved her, he wanted to know her', and asked 'why he couldn't be friends with her', the prosecutor said. On September 30 last year, her son got involved, the court heard.
Ms Nasser said: 'He requested that 'please don't text my mother any more, it's not appropriate'.' On October 9, Ms Khan replied: 'This is scaring me. If you don't stop immediately, I will have to call the police.' On July 3 this year, she told him: 'This is harassment. I have asked you multiple times to stop contacting him. If you don't stop I am warning you, we will call the police.'
Then, on July 17, he told her 'hi you alright, I miss you, shall I come and see you today?' She contacted her sister-in-law in Pakistan to get a lawyer to call Mahhmood to stop further harassment. Ms Nasser said: 'But even that was unsuccessful. This is how persistent and obsessed he was with her.'
In mitigation Umar Ali, defending, said: 'He was trying to befriend her, although it was persistent. 'He has explained he is was a very big fan of Jemima Khan. Obviously she was married to a very influential person in Pakistan, who is a big sports personality. 'He says Imran Khan is his hero. And it was due to that when he met her on the first occasion, when he picked her up from Ronnie's jazz club. 'He accepts his behaviour over the course of a year wasn't appropriate, and he is remorseful.'
His marriage had broken down in May, having wed in 2015, and his black cab licence has been revoked, he told the court.
Judge Martin Edmunds, the Recorder of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, warned Mahhmood he faces jail when he is sentenced next month. He said: 'His behaviour, abusing his position as a cab driver to harvest the telephone number of a client, and then contacting her with enormous persistence, and using multiple telephones over a year, leads me to be deeply concerned. 'I need to understand more about what lays behind this obsessive behaviour.' 'All options, including custody, are open to you.'
Mahhmood, of Waltham Forest, north east London, was granted bail.
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