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South Yorkshire taxi driver goes on trial accused of sexually assaulting teenage girls
A South Yorkshire man has gone on trial accused of sexually assaulting two teenage girls he met through his jobs he held as a delivery driver and a taxi driver. Dressed in a black suit and white shirt, Khurram Javed, 35, entered not guilty pleas to three counts of sexual assault and one count of rape, ahead of his trial beginning at Sheffield Crown Court on Monday, May 21.
Javed, of Clifton Crescent, Rotherham is alleged to have committed the four sex offences on two girls unknown to each other in two separate incidents that took place between May 2008 and March 2014. The first of Javed's alleged victims, Girl A, says she met him when he was working as a delivery driver at the Sizzling Wok takeaway in Badsley Moor Road, Rotherham when she was aged between 12 and 13-years-old.
"He gave his name as 'Sam'. She would visit with two other girls. They would sit on the wall outside the takeaway," prosecutor, Sophie Drake, told the court as she opened the case. She added: "She had met the defendant a couple of times when he gave her and her friends some foreign cigarettes. If he saw her on the street he would follow her in his car."
Javed's offending against Girl A is alleged to have taken place when she visited the takeaway on her own some time between May 2008 and March 2009, when he would have been aged between 25 and 26-years-old. Ms Drake told the court that Javed is alleged to have sexually assaulted Girl A twice in an alleyway next to the Sizzling Wok after he told her he wanted to speak with her there.
Girl A reported Javed to the police in 2016, and subsequently picked him out during a police identification parade. South Yorkshire Police (SYP) traced the number Girl A had for the defendant in her mobile phone to an account registered in Javed's wives' name, said Ms Drake.
The court heard how SYP had a record of Girl A calling the police on June 8, 2008 saying 'she was concerned her step father was going to ram the car of a 27-year-old delivery driver at a Chinese takeaway', Ms Drake added. When interviewed by police Javed accepted working at the Sizzling Wok as a delivery driver, but denied ever meeting Girl A.
Javed is accused of sexually assaulting and raping the second of his alleged victims, Girl B, on March 5, 2014 after collecting her from the supported living accommodation she was staying at, and taking her to a flat above his friend's corner shop in Wakefield. Ms Drake told the court how the two became friendly with one another after Girl B was a passenger in his taxi, and told her his name was 'Jay'.
When he picked her up on the day of the alleged offences he told her support worker he was 20-years-old, when he would have actually been 31-years-old. Javed is alleged to have sexually assaulted Girl B in an upstairs room of his friend's shop, before plying her with alcohol and raping her in his car when he stopped the vehicle on their journey back to Rotherham. Girl B reported the sexual assault to police in 2014, but the case was dropped after Javed provided officers with an explanation in which he said Girl B wanted him to be her boyfriend but told her she was too young.
A number of factors prevented Girl B from reporting the rape until the case was reopened last year including her belief that Javed was sending people from the taxi firm he worked for to watch her boyfriend's house, Ms Drake said. Javed denied committing the alleged sex offences but said he had taken Girl B to Wakefield during in police interview. He denies all charges. The trial, which is expected to conclude next week, continues.
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