Think it better if I don't say anything about this
But a careful reading reveals some, er, odd details
Predatory taxi driver sexually assaulted two terrified teenage passengers
https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hu ... ed-9770689
The young women were attacked in two separate incidents
A predatory taxi driver targeted two 19-year-old women during completely separate incidents when he cynically took advantage of them and sexually assaulted them while driving them home from a night out.
The first victim found herself alone in the taxi with sex-obsessed Alan Mohamed. He first dropped off her two friends, who had shared the pre-booked taxi with her, and he deliberately changed the expected route so that the victim was the last to be still in the taxi with him.
Mohamed drove the "petrified" second woman to a secluded and isolated area with the intention of having sex with her. He had even stopped at a petrol station to buy a bottle of wine for her before sexually touching her.
It was only by her quick-thinking actions that she was saved from enduring a more serious sexual ordeal, Hull Crown Court heard. Father-of-three Mohamed, 40, of St Luke's Street, off Anlaby Road, west Hull, denied sexually assaulting one woman on August 19, 2022 and two offences of sexually assaulting the other woman on May 17 last year but he was convicted after two separate trials.
David Godfrey, prosecuting, said that Mohamed collected the first woman, 19, from outside a nightclub in Hull for a pre-booked journey to take her and two friends home. The woman was in the front of the taxi and her two friends were in the back. She was nine out of 10 on a scale of drunkenness.
Mohamed was "flirty" with her. He dropped off the first friend but, instead of taking the sexual assault victim home next, he went to to drop off the second friend, instead of first taking the victim home, which was nearer.
This left him alone with the victim. They arrived near her home in an isolated area at 3.30am. She found herself in the back of the taxi and Mohamed got on top of her before pulling her trousers down, groping her all over her body and intimately touching her.
"She was open about the fact that she was very drunk," said Mr Godfrey. "She was intoxicated and was taken advantage of. This intoxicated state would have been blatantly obvious to him and that was why he targeted her."
The woman's mother became scared for her daughter's wellbeing when she did not come in to the house and went out with her other daughter to investigate with a torch at 3.50am. The windows of the taxi were steamed up. Her daughter appeared from the back of the taxi and Mohamed drove off at speed.
The woman later said that the incident had affected her life negatively because she thought that she had "done everything right" in pre-booking the taxi. "Little did I know that I was still not safe," she said.
"It's horrible even now to talk about. To think that someone could take advantage of me when I was in no fit state to defend myself is unthinkable.
"I was embarrassed, scared and upset when talking about it. How can anyone put someone through this?" Her university studies had been affected and she had to retake one year. She could not continue with her Masters degree.
"Since this happened, I can't get in to taxis now," she said. "Even if I am with others, I just can't do it. I can't bring myself to be in the same position that I was in August 2022.
"I am struggling to trust people. I know, with time, I will be able to move forward. He has destroyed my confidence and parts of my life for the last two years.
"I hope he is never given the opportunity to do this to anyone else but I wouldn't wish this on anyone."
The second woman, also 19 at the time, had pre-booked a taxi journey to return home. She had been with friends and, although she had been drinking, she certainly was not drunk.
Mohamed asked her whether she had been drinking, which she thought was "really odd". She was in the front passenger seat and asked for music to be played. He told her to be in charge of selecting the music.
He pulled in to a BP garage on dual carriageway near the Waitrose store at Willerby. She telephoned a female friend and said that the driver was being "weird". Mohamed gave a bottle of wine to the woman and he made highly sexualised comments to her, including suggesting pulling up in a layby and having sex.
"He was persistent," said Mr Godfrey. The woman called her friend again in panic and said that she needed help.
Mohamed put his hand down her top and touched her bare breast and made other sexual suggestions. She recorded him doing this, even filming his face so that he could not deny what he had done, but he did not seem bothered and tried to touch her intimately.
"She was pleading with him to stop," said Mr Godfrey. "He was making it clear that he wanted to have sex with her."
Mohamed turned off his vehicle tracking device and drove to a dark, isolated area in the opposite direction to where the woman wanted to go.
"She was petrified and was desperate to go home," said Mr Godfrey. "She was trying to appease the defendant." She wanted him to believe that, if she went home, she would see him the next day.
"That worked and she was taken home," said Mr Godfrey. "She was thinking on her feet." The police were alerted and her case led to that of the first victim being revisited. Her incident in the taxi had not been officially progressed further by the police at the time, although a telephone call had been made to the police.
The second woman later said: "Little did I know that my life was about to change. The journey home was the worst day of my life. I can't even begin to describe the feelings inside.
"I was scared that he would wait outside my house to finish what he started. It's hard to explain the impact this has had on my life so far. I have never been through something like this.
"I don't think I will ever be able to leave my home confidently again. I couldn't get a shower without crying. It just felt like I had been used. It was heartbreaking how much I had changed."
She had suffered flashbacks month after month and her happy previous memories had been ruined. Her relationship with her boyfriend broke down and she began drinking. She suffered work problems.
"I still have nightmares to this day of what he did to me and what I thought would happen," she said. "I don't feel safe any more.
"I don't think I ever will. I hate how it still affects me to this day. I feel that this will never leave me. It has ruined my life."
Joshua Kern, mitigating, said that Mohamed had no previous convictions. He had three children and his wife had been struggling to look after the family in his absence. He had been remanded in custody since May last year.
Mohamed, who had a Kurdish Surani interpreter to help him in court, had lived in Hull for about 20 years and he was a prominent member of his local community, including at a mosque. "Before working as a cab driver, he worked in factories and at fast food outlets," said Mr Kern.
Judge Mark Bury said of the first victim: "She is entitled to go out of an evening and have a drink and she is also entitled, if she wants, to be drunk. She is entitled to expect that she should be taken home safely and you failed to do that, singularly."
The incident involving the first woman was not investigated by the police at the time. "You no doubt thought that you had got away with that one," said Judge Bury.
'Taxi drivers have a responsibility to their fares to make sure that they get them home safe and not to sexually abuse them'
The second woman had suffered severe psychological harm and there was an element of abduction in Mohamed driving her to an isolated area and turning off his tracking device when he thought that he might be able to have sex with her.
"You have not had the courage to admit what you have done on either occasion," said Judge Bury. "In the latter trial, you did not even give evidence.
"These offences are, individually and collectively, too serious to deal with in any other way than by an immediate sentence of imprisonment.
"The public must understand that taxi drivers have a responsibility to their fares to make sure that they get them home safe and not to sexually abuse them."
Mohamed would never drive a taxi again and that would be some comfort to everyone involved. "In both cases, there is plainly a breach of trust," said Judge Bury.
"You are a taxi driver. All fares are are entitled to expect that they are treated with respect by the taxi driver and that they have a duty of taking them home safely.
"These are two completely separate incidents against two completely separate victims."
Mohamed was jailed for five-and-a-half years. He will have to register as a sex offender indefinitely. He showed no emotion as he was led out of the secure dock to be taken down to the cells.