Liaqat Ali 53

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A TAXI driver who raped a teenage passenger in his car has been jailed for seven years.

Married Liaqat Ali, 42, was also banned from ever driving a taxi again for the sex attack on the lone girl.

He took advantage of the 16-year-old girl who got in his cab after celebrating at a birthday party with friends in Middlesbrough.

The teenager was picked up by Ali in his hackney carriage on Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough on March 2 this year.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the girl assumed she would be in safe hands getting into the licensed taxi.

She was clearly drunk and had been “half asleep”, with her head against the seatbelt during the journey.

But her trust was betrayed after Ali drove her to a secluded spot in Acklam instead of taking her to her home.

She had to get out to go to the toilet but when she got back in the vehicle he forced her to perform a sex act on him.

When she eventually got home she was screaming and pulling her hair as she told her mum about her ordeal.

Interviewed by police after his arrest, Ali accepted he had picked up the teenager but denied anything had happened.

He only later admitted there had been a sexual encounter after DNA evidence linked him to the crime. Even then, he claimed there had been consensual sex.

He repeated the claim during his trial at Teesside Crown Court last month.

Giving evidence through an interpreter, Ali claimed she had started touching him.

But the jury didn’t believe his version of events and accepted that the teenager, who is now 17, had been raped. Ali denied a charge of rape but was convicted by a majority verdict.

Judge George Moorhouse jailed Ali, of Abingdon Road, Middlesbrough, for seven years at Teesside Crown Court yesterday.

Prosecutor Christine Egerton also applied for an indefinite sexual offences prevention order (SOPO).

She said there was an element of breach of trust as the girl had felt she would be safe with the taxi driver.

The SOPO was granted, with a condition that Ali must not work as a taxi driver.

Judge Moorhouse told Ali: “You must never drive a taxi again. That will remain in force for the rest of your life.”

The judge said it was a very serious offence, telling the defendant: “You were in a position of trust and owed her a duty of care.

“You knew she was drunk at the time and to some extent you abducted her.”

Paul Abrahams, mitigating, said Ali was a family man of good character who had worked all his life.

His incarceration would have a massive impact on Ali’s wife and children, said Mr Abrahams.