Taxi Driver Online

Taxi driver jailed for sex attack on drunk woman

A taxi driver has been jailed for sexually assaulting and exposing himself to a young drunken woman. Arfan Rehman, 44, of Blyth Street, Mapperley, was jailed for more than two years. He received a sexual harm prevention order - banning him working or seeking work as a taxi driver for ten years. And he was ordered to sign the sex offenders' register.

Nottingham Crown Court heard on Thursday (February 1) the defendant's previous employers did not renew his contract to operate as a driver. Despite this he was at a taxi rank when the victim - who had been socialising in Hockley - got into his car in Nottingham city centre on July 23 last year.

After setting off, the defendant pulled down a side street and told her she did not have sufficient cash for the fare. She had £15 on her, which prosecutor James Thomas said would have been more than sufficient. The defendant - a taxi driver for 20 years - then exposed himself to her and touched her breasts.

Mr Thomas told the court: "She described she was frightened as she was in no fit state to defend herself. She said to the defendant she needed to go to a cash-point. She gave the appearance as much as she could as appearing normal". The woman, 22 - who cannot be named due to the nature of the charges - got out of the taxi at Bobbers Mill. She remembered the defendant standing behind her and asking if she was okay.

He left when her cousin rang and asked where she was. He travelled to be with her and found her sat on the floor being sick and saying she had been assaulted. Police also came to the aid of the woman. Evidence samples were taken from her and were tested. One matched Rehman's DNA. After his arrest, he had claimed there had been consensual sexual activity, which she initiated. But he went on to plead guilty to both charges.

Matthew Smith, mitigating, said: "It is quite clearly an appalling offence. It's quite clearly a terrible thing for the victim to go through". Rehman - who had no previous convictions - picked her up when he thought a man was chasing her down the street, he said.

But he said the defendant "lost his self-control" and "behaved in an appalling way towards her". He stressed his client "comes from a good background" and has a family and is a "good husband and father". Judge Jeremy Lea gave him 33 months for sexual assault and six months concurrently for exposing himself.

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