Taxi Driver Online

Taxi driver avoids jail for assaults on teenage girls



A PRIVATE hire driver sexually assaulted two teenage girls he was driving home in separate attacks in the back of his cab.


Asif Bashir avoided jail and was sentenced to 300 hours of community service after being found guilty by a jury of the sickening assaults.

The parents of the victims today branded the decision not to jail Bashir as “absolutely disgusting”, adding that their daughters had been traumatised by their ordeals.

Bashir, 43, of Groathill Loan in Drylaw, was caught by police after the teenagers reported the assaults, which took place just over a year apart, and he was put on trial for both crimes together.

In the first attack on November 8, 2009, Bashir had picked up the 19-year-old victim in George Street after she enjoyed a night out and had taken her home to the Haymarket area when he pounced.

He fondled the girl before touching her private parts through her clothing then carrying out a sexual assault. On November 20 the following year, Bashir was driving another 19-year-old girl home from Edinburgh to Inverkeithing when he assaulted her outside her home, fondling her breasts and private parts through her clothes.

After watching Bashir escape a jail sentence at Dunfermline Sheriff Court yesterday, the mother of the first victim said: “It’s absolutely disgusting that he was not jailed. My daughter had to move away from Edinburgh because she was so traumatised by what happened.

“There could be other victims out there, and society needs to be protected from him. My daughter also had to come to court and describe what happened to her.”

The father of the second victim said: “He started molesting [my daughter] right outside our front door. When she came in she was crying hysterically.

“It took about half an hour to calm her down and find out what happened then we contacted police.

“They traced Bashir and found this was the second girl who had suffered pretty much exactly the same offence. He’s a sexual predator and it’s a disgrace he was not jailed.”

Bashir’s defence agent said her client continued to protest his innocence. She added that Bashir, who was been in a relationship with his partner for 13 years, had lost any chance of employment as a private hire driver, and was now working as a lorry driver instead.

Sheriff Craig McSherry said Bashir’s decision to maintain his innocence when “two young women with no connection to each other, who did not know one other, came to court with very similar stories” as “bizarre”. Sheriff McSherry said Bashir had been facing two years in prison but took into account he was a first offender.

Bashir was placed on supervision for two years, given 300 hours of community service, ordered to pay each victim £750 in compensation, and placed on the sex offender’s register.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/taxi-drive ... -1-2218288

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Perhaps they should have charged him separately, then at least for his second offence he wouldn't have been a first offender

_________________
Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Quite expensive for a fondle. Hardly worth losing your job for, eh? It's not like he couldn't easily be traced is it?

Anyway, this stupido has just been Moorov - ed. Something we should all be aware of.

When you make uncorroborated complaint, its held on record. You'd think that would be the end of it.

However, as in this case, similar complaints from individuals unknown to the original complainant, uncorroborated on their own, are deemed under Moorov principle to corroborate each other, allowing prosecution.

So you want to go boxing with another cabbie and end up assaulting him. OK you can get away with it. But once the complaint is logged, and you pull the same stunt again with anyone else, then you cop for both offences.

No doubt he'll be driving in his brothers name in some other area sometime soon.

Parents demand tougher sentence for sex attack driver



THE parents of two teenage girls who were sexually assaulted by a private hire driver in the back of his cab are campaigning to have his sentence increased after he avoided jail over the attacks.



Asif Bashir, 43, was given 300 hours of community service after being found guilty by a jury of carrying out the separate attacks a year apart.

Now the victim’s parents have filed submissions to the procurator fiscal urging an appeal be lodged against his sentence on the grounds of “undue leniency”. Both families have sent letters to the fiscal’s office highlighting Bashir’s failure to show any remorse and the lack of justice for the victims as they called for a prison term to be imposed.

Bashir, of Groathill Loan, Drylaw, was sentenced at Dunfermline Sheriff Court on Wednesday when Sheriff Craig McSherry told him he had faced two years in prison.

Instead, Bashir – who the sheriff noted was a first offender – was placed on supervision for two years and ordered to pay each victim £750 in compensation, as well as being placed on the sex offenders register.

The mother of the first victim said the compensation order had left the victims feeling they were “selling themselves” after showing the “bravery” to report the attacks to police and give intimate evidence during the trial.

She said: “Part of his defence plea was that he could no longer be a private hire driver, but he’s now a lorry driver so I don’t see how that makes the public any safer.

“The sheriff has been too lenient in this case, so we hope this appeal goes ahead. We had 48 hours to make our submission and now we have to hope that action is taken.”

The father of the second victim said that the “traumatic and degrading experience” suffered by the victims had been forgotten, while the impact on Bashir’s family had been given priority.

Before sentencing, Bashir’s defence agent spoke about her client’s partner of 13 years, who was “very concerned about the effect it will have on his and her life”.

The victim’s father said: “I was extremely upset that, in passing sentence, the sheriff can take into account possible effects on Mr Bashir’s family but did not hear of the effects this has had on the girls and their families.

“It seems that part of the reason he has avoided jail was the fact he was a first offender, but he committed two very similar crimes a year apart and was tried for them together. The second offence meant he was a repeat offender and it shows an established pattern of behaviour.

“He continues to maintain his innocence and has therefore shown no remorse for his crimes. That makes him a continued risk because, although he will be under supervision, there will be no structure in place to alter his behaviour.

“I feel that Bashir should have received a jail term and we believe that the fiscal should lodge an appeal.”

In the first attack on November 8, 2009, Bashir picked up the 19-year-old victim in George Street and had taken her home to the Haymarket area when he pounced.

He fondled the girl before touching her private parts through her clothing and then carried out a sexual assault.

On November 20 the following year, Bashir was driving another 19-year-old girl home from Edinburgh to Fife when he assaulted her outside her home, fondling her breasts and private parts through her clothes.

A Crown Office spokesman said that no-one was available to comment on the case.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/parents-de ... -1-2224470

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Moorov is certainly more complicated than this explanation. It is true that criminal acts with similarity in nature or mode of execution may be used to corroborate the fact that the accused is the perpetrator in both (or more) instances. However, the similarity must be such as to demonstrate a unity of purpose. It must be demonstrative of a course of criminal conduct rather than separate random acts. In any event, Moorov can only apply in circumstances where there is, in respect of each criminal act, one credible and reliable witness who identifies the accused as the perpetrator. It is most often employed in sex offence prosecutions, due to the fact that the complainer is often the only person who witnesses the accused's conduct and, unless their immediate distress is witnessed by another person, there would be no corroboration of the fact that the accused was the perp.

Do Taxi Drivers really have a need to be familiar with this rule, or indeed similar rules of evidence? I would have thought road traffic issues are the main concern, not the evidential peculiarities of (largely) sex offence prosecutions.

Crown won’t appeal sex attacks sentence



PROSECUTORS will not appeal the non-custodial sentence given to a private hire car driver who sexually assaulted two teenage girls, it was revealed today.


The Crown Office decision comes after Asif Bashir launched his own appeal to overturn his conviction for carrying out the attacks in the back of his cab.

The mother of one victim today said that she was “very disappointed” by the decision, adding that her daughter had lost faith in the justice system to such an extent that she now regretted reporting her ordeal.

She added that her daughter felt Bashir’s bid to throw out his conviction was a “massive slap in the face” after he escaped a jail term last month.

Bashir, 43, was given 300 hours of community service after being found guilty by a jury of carrying out the separate assaults a year apart.

The victim’s parents last month filed submissions to the procurator fiscal urging an appeal be lodged against his sentence on the grounds of “undue leniency”. Both families highlighted Bashir’s failure to admit his crimes after forcing the victims to give explicit evidence in court about the assaults.

The mother of the first victim, who was 19 at the time of the incident, said: “It’s very disappointing because justice has not been done.

“From my daughter’s point of view, she has gone through this massive process of going to the police and giving evidence in a trial and she feels that he has got away with it.

“My daughter now wishes that she had never gone to the police to report it. If she knew someone in the same situation she would advise them to say nothing. That must say there is something wrong with the justice system when a victim of a sex offence feels like that.”

Bashir, of Groathill Loan, Drylaw, was sentenced at Dunfermline Sheriff Court on April 4.

Two weeks later, solicitors acting for Bashir lodged an intimation to appeal at the Appeal Court in Edinburgh, and were given until June 13 to lodge grounds for the case.

The victim’s mother added: “To learn that he’s now appealing against his conviction, my daughter feels that’s a massive slap in the face. Part of the reason we asked the Crown to appeal the sentence was the fact that Bashir was still not admitting these crimes. Now he is appealing against his conviction.

“A sex offender who does not admit they did anything wrong is a continuing risk to others.”

A Crown Office spokeswoman said: “Following full and careful consideration of all of the facts and circumstances in this case Crown Counsel instructed that there should be no appeal against sentence.”

While the Crown has the right to appeal against “unduly lenient” sentences, the Appeal Court has set a test that the sentence must be outwith the range which the judge, taking account of all relevant factors, could reasonably have imposed in order to be successful.

A spokeswoman for Bashir’s solicitor said they had no comment to make on the appeal.

Bashir could not be reached for comment yesterday.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-n ... -1-2274471

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin