London Taxi Cabs (Photo © Reuters)
Many of the sex crimes are being perpetrated by Muslim child grooming gangs responsible for drugging, raping and torturing hundreds and possibly thousands of British girls.
But another wave of sex crimes involves predatory Muslim taxi drivers who are raping female passengers. The number of so-called taxi rapes is snowballing to such an extent that a British judge has issued a warning that no woman can expect to be safe while traveling in a cab.
Reliable statistics on taxi rapes nationwide are difficult to obtain, and Freedom of Information requests seeking accurate data on cab-related sexual assaults are routinely denied (here and here).
However, a much acclaimed report produced by the London Metropolitan Police Service estimates that on average there are a total of 1,125 sexual assaults, including rapes, each year involving taxi drivers in just London; this works out to approximately 22 sexual assaults against women by taxi drivers each week in England's capital city alone.
Moreover, according to a report entitled, "Ending Violence against Women and Girls in the UK," published by the Home Office in March 2013, only around one in ten women who experience serious sexual assault report it to the police. As a result, one can infer that the actual number of taxi rapes across Britain as a whole is far greater than many are willing to admit.
Apart from a few high-profile cases, taxi rapes are rarely reported by national newspapers in Britain, apparently because the politically incorrect crimes are not deemed to be newsworthy.
But a survey of stories buried deep inside local newspapers shows that taxi rapes are occurring in all parts of England, Wales and Scotland on an almost daily basis.
In a recent case in London that was reported by national newspapers, Mohamed Hacene-Chaouch, 46, was sentenced to seven years in prison for raping a 24-year-old female passenger in his unlicensed taxi. Hacene-Chaouch -- an Algerian married father of five -- assaulted the woman after she got lost in Soho, central London.
The woman, who had been celebrating a friend's birthday and had become inebriated, told the jury that the last thing she remembered was being in the back of a car and being taken to an ATM machine. She said she drifted in and out of consciousness but woke up inside the car in front of her east London home to find Hacene-Chaouch raping her. Although Hacene-Chaouch denied the allegations, the crime was filmed by CCTV cameras.
Judge Wendy Joseph at the Old Bailey accused Hacene-Chaouch of being a sexual predator and said: "It must have been clear to you that she was helplessly and hopelessly drunk. She trusted you to take her safely home. She was clearly vulnerable, she was obviously helpless and in your power, and I regard this as a significant feature." Joseph added: "I haven't heard a single word of remorse in any way, shape or form."
Hacene-Chaouch -- who was acquitted of an almost identical attack in London in 2004 -- showed no emotion and stared straight ahead as the judge read the sentence. But as he was told he would be banned from working or seeking work as a taxi driver for 10 years, he gestured to his wife, who was watching the proceedings in the public gallery, and shouted: "Allah is great! I am innocent!"
In nearby Windsor, Anshul Sharma, 23, was charged with raping a 19-year-old woman who mistook his car for a legitimate taxi. She had been searching for a cab in the early hours of the morning when she was approached by Sharma, who claimed he was driving a licensed taxi. After she was in the car, he drove her to a remote location where he raped her.
In Blackburn on July 9, Talib Hussain, 62, was charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl, a passenger in his taxi. In Blackpool on July 8, Turkish-born Fatih Top, 38, was charged with raping an 18-year-old woman who was a passenger in his cab.
In Shrewsbury on July 6, Ahmet Baser, 34, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for raping an underage girl in his taxi. The victim and her friend were picked up by Baser's taxi outside a downtown night spot. After dropping off her friend, Baser went on to drive his victim into the remote countryside, where he raped her before taking her home.
In Nottingham on June 12, police said they were looking for an "Asian" taxi driver who sexually assaulted a 19-year-old passenger in his cab.
In Berkshire on May 21, Arshad Arif, 28, appeared at the Reading Crown Court on charges of driving a 17-year-old passenger in his cab to a remote park some 25 miles from her home and raping her twice. Arif was identified after it emerged he had earlier allowed the schoolgirl to use his phone, with her father noting down the number.
In Oldham on May 16, Tamur Yaqub, 32, was sentenced to eight years in prison after being convicted of attempting to rape a 15-year-old girl in the back of his car. The jury heard that Yaqub -- a married father of six -- had dragged the girl into his private-hire taxi after spotting her walking home. Judge Jeffrey Lewis of the Manchester Crown Court said: "You used considerable force against a girl who was no match for you. You subjected her to degradation and you have shown not the slightest remorse."
In Hemel Hempstead on May 7, Mashain Pitchei, 45, was sentenced to four years in prison for raping a 20-year-old female passenger. Pitchei, who pretended to be a taxi driver, was parked in the downtown Marlowes district when he offered a lift to the victim, who had been on a night out with friends. Believing it was a licensed taxi, she got into the vehicle and he drove off. Pitchei then pulled over in a suburb where he raped her.
In Heaton on April 11, Mohammed Akram, 35, pled guilty to sexually assaulting a woman in his taxi. After the woman entered the vehicle, Akram -- a married father of four -- drove to a remote location, where he attacked her.
In Peterborough on February 20, Mohammed Umar Anwar, 31, lost an appeal against the City Council's decision to revoke his taxi license after he admitted to police that he got a 15-year-old female passenger to perform a sex act on him when she had no money to pay the fare.
In Manchester on February 18, Elhadi Sakhri, 42, was sentenced to seven years and ten months for two counts of raping men who were passengers in his taxi. Sakhri -- who was granted asylum in Britain after complaining he faced persecution in Algeria because he was bisexual -- forced once of his victims up against a wall and raped him. He dragged the other victim by his arms down an alleyway where he raped him.
In London on February 6, police said they were looking for an "Asian" man accused of sexually assaulting three women in the Canning Town district.
In Leeds on January 9, Mohammed Shahin, 28, was sentenced to seven years in prison for raping a 20-year-old passenger who fell asleep in his taxi as he drove her home. A jury at the Nottingham Crown Court heard that from the moment the woman got in, Shahin switched off the GPS tracking system that monitored his vehicle's movements, suggesting he had a sinister motive from the outset. When she woke up, she found that Shahin had parked in a remote street in an unknown location. He then climbed into the back of the car and raped her before dropping her off near her home. The judge ordered that Shahin, after serving his sentence, be deported to his home country of Bangladesh.
In Accrington, Mohammed Ishaq, 38, was accused of raping a 35-year-old female passenger after taking her home. Also in Accrington, Mohammed Baig, 45, was accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old passenger. After dropping her off at her home, Baig left the victim with the words, "I'll look for you. I'll come and find you."
In Billingham, Khalile Maqsood, 31, was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison for abducting and raping a 20-year-old female passenger at knifepoint. Maqsood -- a married father of four -- offered the victim a lift. But when she got into the taxi he took a series of wrong turns, then stopped in a deserted parking garage and turned off the engine.
Maqsood told jurors that the victim had led him on and had been "really up for it." He added: "I'm only human at the end of the day. She'd come on to me. I made a mistake. I just gave in to temptation. She led me on. She consented to it. That's what she wanted."
The cab driver -- whose wife was pregnant with their fourth child when he committed the offense -- was expressionless as he was led from the dock. Judge Rodney Jameson of the Newcastle Crown Court said Maqsood had shown little understanding of, and no remorse for, what he had done.
In East Sussex, Abul Malik, 29, was jailed for seven years after being found guilty of raping a 19-year-old female passenger when she could not pay for her £6.80 ($10) fare home.
In Edinburgh, Ibrahim Selman fled Scotland after raping a woman and assaulting several others while working as a taxi driver. Selman, who was in the UK as an illegal immigrant, went on the run to the Sudan days after holding a female passenger hostage, repeatedly raping her and leaving her for dead in the street.
In Hull, Masoud Rahimi, 37, was convicted of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old female passenger. The Iranian-born Rahimi denied it was him until the CCTV footage was shown to him, with the girl fleeing from his car as he was filling up the tank with gasoline.
In London, Salam Rahman, 27, and Mohammed Elahi, 26, were jailed for nine years for gang-raping two female passengers, one of whom was a 26-year-old newlywed. In Clapham, south London, Atiq Rehman, 20, tricked a 22-year-old woman into thinking he was a legitimate taxi driver. Rehman, an illegal immigrant from Pakistan who was twice refused asylum in Britain, raped the woman for 45 minutes while asking her how many children she wanted to have.
Also in London, Assadullah Razaq, 31, was sentenced to eight years in jail for raping a 28-year-old female passenger. The defense attorney said that Razaq, an Afghan refugee and a married father of three, admitted to having sex with the woman, but maintained it was not rape. His attorney said Razaq came to Britain after being tortured by the Taliban, and that something had affected his mental state.
At King's Cross in central London, police said they were looking for a Turkish cab driver who raped an 18-year-old passenger after driving her to a remote location. After the attack, he took her to Gloucester Place in Westminster where he pushed her from his vehicle and left her lying in a gutter.
In Manchester, Shahjahan Islam was sentenced to nine years in prison for sexually assaulting a 27-year-old female passenger. The victim had been out with friends when she decided to go home and got into a taxi driven by Islam. She gave Islam her address, he programmed it into his GPS and departed. After several minutes the woman realized they were going the wrong way. Eventually he stopped the car, climbed into the passenger seat and tried to rape her. DNA recovered from the woman led officers to identify Islam as the suspect.
In Newport, South Wales, Asif Iqbal, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for raping two female passengers on late-night rides home. Iqbal's wife was also jailed for six months after admitting to perverting the course of justice by offering money to one of the victims to withdraw her complaint. Police fear many more women may have been attacked by Iqbal, who targeted women outside pubs and nightclubs in the hope they would be drunk.
In Portsmouth, Muhammed Hasan, 35, was accused of locking a 19-year-old woman with learning disabilities into his cab and sexually assaulting her. In St. Helens, Mazish Muzaffar, 43, was charged with assaulting a female passenger in his taxi.
In Sheffield, Zahoor Mahmood, 40, was jailed for eight years for sexually assaulting two female passengers. Instead of taking his first victim to her home, he locked her in his cab for more than two hours, got into the back with her and tried to get her to snort cocaine to get her "in the mood." Three weeks later, Mahmood -- a married father of four -- spotted a 17-year-old girl walking home after a night out. He offered to take her home for free when she said she had no money for the fare, but then locked her in his cab for an hour, tried to get her to snort cocaine and then molested her. Before the attacks, Mahmood, who has been driving taxis in Sheffield for more than 15 years, had twice been stripped of his license after being convicted of drug offenses, but twice won appeals that allowed him to continue working.
In Teesside, Pakistani-born Liaqat Ali, 42, was sentenced to seven years in prison for raping a 16-year-old passenger as she dozed off drunk in his taxi. Ali -- a married father of four -- stopped for the girl in Middlesbrough and drove her to a secluded spot, where he attacked her. Ali admitted to picking the victim up but denied anything had happened. Once results of DNA evidence were obtained, he admitted to having lied.
The list goes on and on. Not surprisingly, more and more women-only taxi cab firms are springing up around the UK to cater to women who prefer to see another female at the wheel. Women-only taxi firms now include London Lady Chauffeurs, Pink Ladies in Warrington and Ladies Only Travel in Bradford.
A women-only taxi service has yet to arrive in Bristol, where BBC Radio host Sam Mason was fired after she called a taxi company and requested a "non-Asian" driver to take her 14-year-old daughter to her grandparents' home. Mason, a single mother, told the operator that "a guy with a turban on would freak her daughter out," and insisted they send an English driver -- preferably a female English driver -- instead.
The operator refused to book a car and said: "We would class that as being racist. We can't just penalize the Asian drivers and just send an English one." Mason responded: "It's not your 14-year-old girl, is it?" To which the operator answered: "Yes, but that's racist to say you don't want an Asian driver."
The BBC was alerted to the conversation after it was recorded and sent to newspaper.
Mason was subsequently suspended and fired 24 hours later. A BBC spokesman said: "Although Sam Mason's remarks were not made on-air, her comments were completely unacceptable and, for that reason, she has been informed that she will no longer be working for the BBC with immediate effect."
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