Sex attack taxi driver offered victim £6,000 for her silence

HE RANG HER AS HE AWAITED TRIAL

- By MARTIN NAYLOR

A MARRIED taxi driver who sexually assaulted two young passengers in his cab later offered one of them £6,000 to withdraw her complaint.

In a phone call played at Nottingham Crown Court, Zaheer Hussain asked the girl to meet him in a coffee shop in Old Market Square, saying: “I have got the money, let's get it done and dusted, you enjoy it and I'll get on with the rest of my life”.

The victim refused and the 45-year-old defendant, of The Meadows, was found guilty of counts of sexual assault and later pleaded guilty to an additional charge of perverting the course of justice.

The courtroom broke out into spontaneous applause after the victim fought back tears to read her own impact statement, saying: “He preyed on what he thought was a young, vulnerable girl, but he picked on the wrong girl that night.”

Jailing him for 11 years, Judge Nirmal Shant KC said: “One victim was 18 and was out celebrating her birthday. She was in drink and you decided to take advantage of her sexually and drove her to an isolated location. She was unsurprisingly terrified, she said in her evidence she thought you were going to kill her.