Taxi driver is jailed for 7 years for raping a university student The attack happened as he drove the student home from a birthday celebration with friends in the city centre A taxi driver was today jailed for seven years for raping a university student as he drove her home.
Married Mohammed Ali, who has six children of his own and three more adopted, was told by a judge that he had degraded and humiliated the young woman, who at 19 was less than half his age.
The student had been drinking with housemates at a birthday celebration but went home alone after losing them on a busy Friday night in Glam Bar in Cardiff’s Greyfriars Road.
She was forced to perform a sex act on a cabbie she should have been able to trust to get her back safely and it had left her traumatised and had changed her life forever, the judge Recorder Huw Rees said at Cardiff Crown Court.
“This was a degrading and violent act on a vulnerable young woman who had taken perhaps too much to drink and had become separated from her friends.
“You subjected her to an act which was unwelcome and was without her consent and that is rape.
“The effect on her was evident to all who saw her in the courtroom,” he told Ali, 40, of West Luton Place, Cardiff who was unanimously found guilty by a jury.
He said the attack was aggravated by the fact Ali had been in a position of trust, it was 2am and she was alone and isolated in his taxi cab.
But he also had to take into account that minimal force was used, the incident was short and the driver, with no previous convictions of any kind, would now have a stain on his character for the rest of his life.
Michael Mather-Lees QC, defending it had been a "massive fall from grace" which would attract a great deal of disapproval in his close Somali community, affecting not only for Ali himself but also his family.
“He has worked hard all his life and had responsibility for his wife, his six children, three other children from a relative who would have been homeless if he had not adopted them and a disabled parent - there is a good side to him as well as this bad one,” the barrister said.
“This was a journey into madness, which lasted 10 minutes in an otherwise unblemished life”
He also said his remarks were in no way meant to trivialise what had happened to the student.
He acknowledged: “It is an enormously serious offence. People who take taxi rides at night have to be protected.”
The victim’s friends had found her "in pieces" on the doorstep of their Cathays student house following an hysterical phone call in which she accused a taxi driver of forcing himself on her.
“I have never seen anyone so distraught," said one male housemate who after the call, ran all the way home, to find her shaking and "in complete shock".
Another described her crying every night after the attack. During a week long trial she was forced to relive what happened and to have to deny suggestions that she had agreed to have sex with a stranger and was only complaining because she regretted it.
Today the court heard her university studies had suffered.
Prosecuting counsel Janet McDonald had told the jurors: “Just because she was drunk, she was not fair game to be taken advantage of ...drinking is not an invitation to be sexually assaulted.”
Despite intimate DNA evidence found in her mouth, Ali had denied rape, claiming she had molested him
“She put her hand inside my trousers," he told the jury.
“I pushed her away two or three times but then I let it happen.
“She must have put her hand to her mouth after touching me.”
Before being led away to the cells, Ali was told his name would be on the Sex Offenders Register for the rest of his life.
Following the sentence hearing, Detective Constable Kate Fullstone, from South Wales Police, said: “The victim has shown tremendous courage throughout the investigation and court case.
“We hope today’s verdict and sentence will allow her to put this traumatic ordeal behind her.
“Cases like these are thankfully rare, however when they do occur victims can expect to have extensive support from the investigation team and therapeutic health professionals from the Sexual Assault Referral Centre.”
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales ... li-7107077
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