Taxi Driver Online

Yorkshire Evening Post

November 19, 2007

Sex attack cabbie fails in licence bid

AN EX-MINICAB driver who indecently assaulted a 15-year-old girl he picked up on a job has failed in his bid to get a new private hire licence.

Mohammed Asghar Khan took out a civil case against Leeds City Council after its Private Hire and Licensing department refused to allow him back on the streets.

The 38-year-old, of Fairfield Road, Heckmondwike, near Batley, was originally charged with attempted rape after the attack on New Year's Eve in 1995.

Mr Khan, who was 25 at the time, pleaded not guilty to that charge when he appeared at Leeds Crown Court in 1997 but admitted indecently assaulting the girl when she was in his minicab.

He was given a 150-hour community service order and his private hire licence was also withdrawn.

At Leeds Magistrates' Court Mark Dickson, representing the council, said standard checks were made on Mr Khan after he applied for another licence in May.

Although he had a valid driving licence, a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check also revealed Mr Khan's conviction.

Principal licensing officer Desmond Broster told the court that the CRB document also contained additional information provided by West Yorkshire Police.

This showed the original attempted rape charge and other allegations by the 15-year-old victim, who cannot be named, including how Mr Khan had offered to return her fare if she let him touch her and how he exposed his penis - both of which he denied.

Mr Broster said: "It's our responsibility to maximize public safety and make sure the person who is granted the licence is a fit and proper person.

"Being a taxi or private hire driver you will come across those occasions where a woman or a child is on their own, one-to-one at night, with someone they've never met before. The council was especially concerned about those circumstances in this case."

Factory

Mr Khan, who ran a newsagents before working in a biscuit factory, said he had not been in trouble with the police before or since the assault.

He said: "I still regret it because at the time I was a young, stupid lad, just a young kid.

"I'm a family man now with four children and I think I'm a fit and responsible person to carry out this job."

His solicitor Khalid Hussain told the magistrates' panel of two men and one woman that the judge in the original case had opted for a non-custodial sentence and this was "the singular offence in Khan's life."

The panel acknowledged Mr Khan's good character since the assault but rejected the appeal, chairman Mark Dickson adding: "We do not consider Mr Khan to be a fit and proper person to hold a private hire licence."

charles.heslett@ypn.co.uk
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Maybe it would bea good idea to make sure that Sarah Coates gets a copy of this report so that she can see how serious the council and magistrates see these things.

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Grandad,

I think her aim is to try and stop these things happening in the first place. Its a tall order considering you never know who is going to commit the next serious offence but to bury ones head in the sand is not the answer.

Regards

JD

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Potentially a whole new industry of Sara Coats reps riding shotgun in every cab in the country is probably the only way you will ensure what she wants, even then I have my doubts. The system in place already works, and of course we can always do more but so can we about theft burgulary, Murder and other crimes too. The Saudis have a hand chopping policy but still havn't elliminated theft, so short of a complete new social order what can you do?

No system will be 100% perfect, but perhaps her point is that there's nothing to stop sex offenders getting a badge if councillors deem it appropriate, indeed I seem to recall it happening in Bradford, for example?

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Perhaps that is her point, but after reading her survey questions that were designed to get the answers she wants, then perhaps it isn't.
I personally would have more respect for her campaign if after things were pointed out to her as incorrect, she had corrected them. Instead she uses the same scaremongering statements and the same method of grabbing a headline weeks later in a different city. I agree with the sentiment but not her methods of campaigning, especially the justification used of equating verbal abuse to a rape.

I must admit I've only had a swift glance at this so called survey in passing and I haven't read it becuase it probably has nothing whatsoever to do with the issue of sexual assaults except to perhaps confirm what we already know to be fact.

This girl has been researching and campaigning for four years so when did this survey take place considering you state she based her campaign on it? I was under the impression she based her campaign on what she perceived as unfit and improper cab drivers and this survey was an afterthought to gather more information from women who have had good and bad experiances in Taxis.

The girl doesn't need to do any surveys because the whole country is aware of the potential for assault in isolated confined situations that present themselves when there is a one on one situation. Opportunity is probably the main ingredient of most sexual offences because in most cases regarding cab drivers the "mens rea" to commit such an offence is absent when the driver leaves his home and goes out to work. I don't suppose the driver who abused Sarah Coates went out with the intention of abusing the first woman who got in his cab, however his potential to do such a thing maifested itself in his unfit and improper verbal assasination of Sarah Coates.

Regards

JD

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Sarah Coats was justified in taking the cabbie to court and was right to be bitter towards him but why all the taxi trade?
It would be wrong to say she based her campaign on that survey but to use that survey of fifty people with leading questions is what I find underhanded and a misrepresentation designed to create a false image of our trade to suite her ambitions.

Well I would agree that the name of her campaign is a bit lurid, but I think it's you that's equating verbab abuse with rape, not her?

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Realy? hmm............interesting Using that yardstick taxi drivers up and down the country should setup campaigns to stop rape of taxi drivers by passengers each time some one insults or name-calls a driver?
Or maybe in you think that doesn't happen.

I think we should get one thing straight here, Sarah Coates was the victim and also the witness in this matter, it was the judicial system that took this cab driver to court and not Sarah Coates.



Edinburgh council based an official survey on only 11 people so I think an informal survey of 50 people taken at random shouldn't be dismissed so lightly. However the person over emphasising this survey is perhpas you?

Here are some survey statistics that might interest you followed by an article highlighting an alleged Rape in Oxford by a black cab driver.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfo ... 261095.stm

Rape and sexual assault of women:

Findings from the British Crime Survey Andy Myhill and Jonathan Allen The 1998 and 2000 British Crime Surveys included computerised self-completion questionnaires designed to provide the most accurate-ever estimates of the extent and nature of sexual victimisation in England and Wales. The questions were asked of both men and women aged 16 to 59; findings on the victimisation of women only are presented here.

● 0.4% of women aged 16 to 59 in England and Wales said they had been raped in the year preceding the 2000 BCS – an estimated 61,000 victims.
● 0.9% of women said they had been subject to some form of sexual victimisation (including rape) in this period.
● Around 1 in 20 women (4.9%) said they had been raped since age 16, an estimated 754,000 victims. About 1 in 10 women (9.7%) said they had experienced some form of sexual victimisation (including rape) since age 16.
● Age is the biggest risk factor for experiencing sexual victimisation; women aged 16 to 24 were more likely to say they had been sexually victimised in the last year than older women.
● Women are most likely to be sexually attacked by men they know in some way, most often partners (32%) or acquaintances (22%). Current partners (at the time of the attack) were responsible for 45% of rapes reported to the survey. Strangers were responsible for only 8% of rapes reported to the survey.
● 18% of incidents of sexual victimisation reported to the survey came to the attention of the police; the police came to know about 20% of rapes. 32% of women who reported rape were ‘very satisfied’ with the way the police handled the matter, 22% were very dissatisfied.
● Less than two-thirds (60%) of female rape victims were prepared to self-classify their experience as ‘rape’ and less than three-quarters (70%) of women who self-classified themselves as having been the victim of ‘attempted rape’ also self-classified this incident as a crime.
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Woman sexually attacked in taxi

A taxi driver who sexually assaulted a 25-year-old woman in Oxford is being hunted by detectives.

The victim said she caught a black cab near James Street Tavern, off Cowley Road, after a night out on Friday.

"The taxi then stopped in a garage block near Pennywell Drive, Cutteslowe, where the driver subjected her to a serious sexual assault," said police.

Anyone who saw a black cab in the area on Friday night or Saturday morning is asked to contact police.
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Regards

JD

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The survey was so absurd that when the results were posted on Sheffield forum the thread had to be removed because of the outcry AGAINST IT by general public and not the taxi drivers. Questions like, Have you had a bad experience with a taxi driver and results were 42% yes so according to your accepted method over 25 Million people of Britain have had a bed experience with a taxi driver. The compalint was that Sara Coats was creating the impression that 25 million people had been sexually assaulted by taxi drivers, and that was my complaint. For you to simply jump on the bandwagon is not reasonable.
However the latest ammendments to her website has done away with statements like ,"Young lives are being destroyed BY rape comitted by taxi drivers". Instead she has taken a much more concilliatory line of warning against rogue drivers and bogus taxis etc. Again and again my complaint has been that it's unfair to blame the whole industry for actions of a few nutters. To post examples of an accusation against a taxi driver in Oxford is no answer to what my central point was, unless the implication is that all in Oxford a rapists. We are all against such crimes, and I am pleased that it was bacause of objections from concerned taxi drivers that Sara Coats has modified her stance to a much more sensible one and also is changing the name of her campaign too. Hardly any thanks then to taxi drivers falling over themselves to bad mouth their own trade. http://www.myspace.com/hailrape

I'm not surprised 42% said yes. However it would appear the question relates solely to a "bad experience" and from what you have written the question doesn't say, "have you had a bad sexual experience with a cab driver"?

I'm sure many women have had good and bad experiences with cab drivers in one way or another, including those who were questioned in this survey. On the law of averages and considering the frequency people use cabs then the figures are nothing out of the ordinary. I've had bad experiences myself with cab drivers especially in situations where they have gone the long way around, or tried to charge me more than the legal fare and in one instance where the meter wasn't even activated. In fact I've had several bad experiences and if the truth be known I bet those who use cabs on a frequent basis could tell a similar story. I think you will find there are plenty of bad experiences to be had at the hands of both H/C and P/H drivers but the reality of the situation is this, "a bad experience might not always be down to the driver but the passenger might see it entirely differently"? Therefore it is understandable why 45% of those questioned actually said, they had had a bad experience.

Taken from the 2004 home office crime survey.

l Overall, "45 per cent of women" and 26 per cent of men aged 16-59 could recall being subject to domestic violence (abuse, threats or force), sexual victimisation or stalking at least once in their lifetimes (domestic violence since 16; sexual victimisation or stalking at any point in a respondent’s lifetime).


Regards

JD

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I don't know where you get 25 million people from but obviously you have broken the statistic down to those persons who actually use cabs, and their age and sex, etc etc.

I think if you surveyed any cab rank in the country a high percentage of people would state they have had a bad experience of one sort or another in a cab.



So it is your opinion that Sarah Coates only created an impression? And one would assume that the impression was created on you because you didn't take on board the fact that Sarah Coates only asked the question "have you had a bad experience in a Taxi"? You felt that the question related to a bad sexual experience but according to you the question wasn't framed in that way? Therefore in the absence of the word "sexual" one fails to see how you drew the conclusion that you did?



I did take on board the actual question as you wrote it. You said.

"Questions like, Have you had a bad experience with a taxi driver"?

That’s what you said, but oddly enough there is nothing framed in the question about sex, rape, abuse or anything else remotely connected to violence for that matter.

The actual question Sarah Coates asked was this.

Have you, or do you know of anyone who has had a bad experience with a taxi driver?

Now we do like to be accurate on TDO but for some reason you left out the bit about "do you know of anyone"

So although the question doesn't even relate to a sexual incident you thought you would twist the facts to suite your own purpose.

I took the question on board and came to a different conclusion than you. If anyone else shares your opinion then that’s fine by me but the fact remains that the question as it is "framed" does not allude to 25 million people being sexually assaulted by Taxi drivers.



Who's bandwagon have I jumped on? I think it was you who expanded this debate by introducing the link to your Sheffield forum and calling her a "tramp". We would have been none the wiser about the criticisms directed at Sarah Coates if it wasn't for you but considering you hold her in such low esteem I decided to explore the reasons why someone would call a person they have never met, a "tramp".

From her opening post in the thread she stated she was making it quite clear that she wasn't targeting all taxi drivers and that she came to the forum for among other things "advice". That suggests to me she had a fairly open mind about the issues and she wanted to learn not only from the people of Sheffield but also from the cab drivers of Sheffield. Here is a naive girl who has spent four years of her life taking time out to familiarise herself with the workings of the taxi trade and writing and talking to all kinds of people in order to gain experience. I'm afraid I don't share you vilification of Sarah Coates and thank god I have the intelligence to see the wider picture of what she is trying to achieve and not limit my thoughts to the narrow spectrum that your thoughts seem to occupy.



Considering the aim of Sarah Coates was to seek advice and opinion and learn from such advice then it is no surprise she changed some aspects of the direction of her campaign. After all she is only 22 years of age and has no experience whatsoever of the Taxi trade. Children have to learn and by her actions it is obvious that Sarah Coates is on that learning curve. I don't know if her campaign will achieve anything but she has a right to her opinions and to offer those opinions up to those who she thinks might be in a position to officiate change, just as you have the right to do likewise.



She has never blamed the whole industry in fact she has gone out of her way not to blame the whole industry or did you conveniently side step her protestations that she is not targeting the industry as a whole?



The Oxford article was a timely reminder that Cab drivers do rape women. There is no getting away from that fact and we on TDO can provide evidence of instance upon instance of innocent women being raped and sexually assaulted by taxi drivers.

Although some might not yet realise what it's like for a woman to be violently raped or assualted, of which it should be said neither happened to Sarah Coates, I can only say one thing, "God forbid that there ever comes a time when such a crime is visited upon a member of your own family. I can assure you that anyone who thinks light of it now, will have a different opinion after.



Well Sarah Coates did say she was on a learning curve and she didn't tar all cabbies with the same brush so perhaps you might consider that whatever changes she has made to her website could easily have been achieved without you calling her a "tramp". I just wonder if in your eyes she remains a tramp or has changing the wording on her website exonerated her from that slur?

Regards

JD

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I would like to read the word "slut" that you claim I used to describe her please can you point out where that was?

I do not share your view of a simple young girl out for a bit of learning curve acquisition, but more an attempt push her world view on others. The fact that changes are being brought about proves a fault existed in her approach.
Thank you for concerns about visitation of rape on any member of my family and indeed I would hope likewise for yours but Sara Coats is not a victim of rape any more than you or me, and I hope it remains that way.
You quote Home office statistics showing the similarity in percentages with Sara Coats', which only proves that it's no more dangerous in taxis than being at home. Why then only target taxi drivers, and not the domestic incidents involving Husbands and boyfriends?
The entrants to USA were asked the question,"Are you a terrorist?" and although one can argue it's a valid question but does seem idiotic to ask it in the first place. The changes in the rules she is asking for are either outlandish or already in place and she hasn't bothered to find that FACT out. Her campaign and petitions are as simple as the American question, and equaly as effective at getting a positive result.

I have no problem in accepting that most of the taxi drivers a decent people. I am surprised at your resistance to accepting that simple premiss.
You keep moving the topic along without looking at the questions that have been answered. Fact is that no one is against the sentiment of stopping rape by taxi drivers or for that matter by priests or teachers or whoever, but against a general accusation levelled at the taxi trade. She introduced a sexual connotation to it with the name "Hail rape" so no one else responsible for only targetting taxis drivers.

Since I am not in contact with Sara Coats and neither is she on this forum, so I must assume others must have given her negative reaction enough to change direction of her campaign. She would not have done that by people simply agreeing with this poor misguided creature.

She has however proven to be a slow learner, where a graduate takes more than two years to find her campaign name is slightly off the mark. Wonderful, I am glad she has your full backing, looks like she is going places although it may take a few years getting there.