Taxi driver jailed for raping his passenger

The 19-year-old woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had been in a Leeds city centre bar last November before getting into Mohammed Shazad's private hire vehicle at about 5am.

Bradford Crown Court heard the victim had drunk 10 double vodkas and two glasses of champagne that night and during Shazad's trial the jury was played a mobile phone recording of the teenager pleading to be let go.

The victim's friend told the court how she had been dropped off at her Leeds home before Shazad set off back to Bradford with the teenager.

During a phone call to her friend she heard the teenager asking the driver why he was going the wrong way and when the recording of her friend's screams were played to the jury the woman broke down in tears in the witness box.

The woman contacted the police fearing her friend was in danger and the teenager was later found in a distressed state in Queen's Road, Bradford.

Father-of-four Shazad, 36, of Brantdale Road, Heaton, Bradford, said she had consented to sex with him but after just two hours of deliberation he was found guilty of the attack.

He told the court that he had held a private hire licence with Leeds City Council since 2007 and yesterday Judge Robert Bartfield made Shazad the subject of a sexual offences prevention order which bans him from working as a cabbie again.

Judge Bartfield said Shazad that because the woman had been a passenger in his vehicle he had a duty to ensure she did not come to harm.

But he said Shazad had given her more alcohol with the intention of rendering her more incapacitated by drink so he could rape her.

The traumatised victim was helped by pensioner Arthur Hudson after her ordeal and the judge commended his actions and awarded him 400. The judge also commended a group of investigating officers.