Sex predator who posed as cabbie is jailed for three years

A SEX attacker who preyed on young women in his car while pretending to be a taxi driver was jailed for more than three years yesterday.

Sajjad Hussain, who picked up his victims as they waited for taxis after nights out with friends, will be supervised in the community for three years after his release.

His two victims, aged 23 and 39, who cannot be named for legal reasons, got inADVERTISEMENT

to his car, believing it to be a taxi. Once they were inside, Hussain sexually assaulted them.

The 39-year-old woman told police: "I will never forget what happened in the car for the rest of my life."

Hussain, a former taxi driver, is already on the sex offenders register. When he was questioned by police, he claimed that he was at home with his brother on both occasions last year.

But the jury rejected his alibis and convicted him of the assaults on 7 July and 5 November, 2010.

Passing sentence, Sheriff Sam Cathcart told Hussain that due to the "gravity of the crime" a custodial sentence was appropriate.

He also placed Hussain on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

The court heard from both of Hussain's victims who described each of the incidents in his car. The younger of the two women told the jury Hussain's car was a "private hire looking car" and was waiting outside the Casino in Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street around 6am last July.

She said when she heard the driver would charge her only a few pounds to get home and opened the passenger door for her she got in.

But, after reaching her destination only a short distance away in Tradeston, Hussain pounced on his passenger.

The woman said she attempted to push Hussain away, threw the taxi fare at him and ran away. She told the jury that she now felt "stupid" for paying him.

Hussain's next victim got in to his car a few months later at Battlefield Road, Glasgow, believing it to be the taxi she thought her friend had called.

But, while driving her home his hand brushed her leg. She said she thought it was an accident and his hand accidentally touched her while changing gears. Ms Henderson asked: "What happened after that?"

The woman replied: "It was almost immediately after that he touched my leg again with his left hand."

She was asked: "How did he touch your leg?"

The witness replied: "Kind of like a grope of the leg, like a squeeze."

She added that Hussain moved his hand up her body and touched her chest over her clothes.

The court heard the woman escaped from the car when it stopped at traffic lights and she reported the incident to the police.

Source: Scotsman