A taxi driver who launched a sex attack on a terrifed passenger – before ringing her to beg for mercy – has been jailed.
Zaharul Hoque pulled the victim back into his cab and tried to make her perform a sex act. But he later called to say sorry and urged her to “let me off this time”. He was convicted of sexual assault last month.
Now the 47-year-old, who had not told his family why he was on trial, has been jailed for three years and ordered to register as a sex offender for life.
The victim previously told Warwick Crown Court she feared for her life when Hoque dragged her back into the cab after dropping her outside her home.
She said: “His hands were all over me. Next thing, he pushed me towards the taxi door, opened the door and I was inside. I was scared, I didn’t know whether he was going to rape me. I was thinking: ‘I don’t know if I’m going to end up in a ditch.’”
The victim escaped and called Atherstone Taxis, which employed Hoque, to report the attack.
The jury heard she then had the first of three calls from the driver, in which he pleaded: “I apologise. Do me a favour, don’t complain. I do apologise, I do apologise. Let me off this time.”
Her ordeal happened in April last year after Hoque collected her and a group of friends from a night out in Atherstone.
He later told police he had done nothing wrong and there had been just a hug and a kiss on the cheek when he dropped the victim off.
Hoque claimed she was lying about the attack and said he called her just once, to ask why she was making a complaint.
Giving evidence, Hoque continued to deny making more than one call and claimed the caller was not him. After more than six hours, a jury convicted Hoque of sexual assault by a majority of ten to two.
Jurors cleared him of a second count of the same charge, involving an allegation he touched the victim’s leg.
The judge said young women getting into taxis alone were “vulnerable” and needed to trust the driver.
