Fazalullah Khan Mohammed indecently assaulted his passenger while she slept, intoxicated from wine he had bought and encouraged her to drink. Stock photo / 123RF
WARNING: This story deals with sexual offending and may be distressing.
A taxi driver who plied his passenger with wine before sexually assaulting her as she slept in his front seat has failed to take his case to the highest court in the country.
In a recent decision by the Supreme Court of New Zealand, Fazalullah Khan Mohammed was declined leave to appeal his conviction on the basis his argument was unchanged from the Court of Appeal.
“In effect, the applicant is asking this court to provide for a second attempt at advancing the arguments made by his counsel in the Court of Appeal,” the decision said.
“There is no appearance of any error on the part of the Court of Appeal in the way the grounds of appeal were addressed.”
Mohammed was found guilty by jury trial on three charges of indecent assault and was later sentenced to seven months’ home detention after he failed in his bid to be discharged without conviction.
He had relied on adverse consequences such as employment, deportation, and risk of harm if he was deported to India, but these were declined by the sentencing judge. He was also ordered to pay $7000 in emotional harm reparation, a figure he offered himself during his sentencing.
Mohammed was parked in his taxi at the Auckland Viaduct in March 2020 when he called out to a woman outside of a sports bar.
She was waiting for a cab herself but Mohammed said he would match the price of the ridesharing service and get her where she needed to go.
She sat in the front seat and gave the drop-off address before Mohammed suggested a detour to the airport, which she eventually agreed to.
He stopped at a supermarket nearby to purchase wine and encouraged her to drink. According to court documents, he did not have any himself and she finished the bottle during the ride.
She became intoxicated and was messaging her husband and friends during the trip. Mohammed was playing music and singing along to sexually explicit songs, directing lyrics at the woman.
Some songs were played multiple times, one was played two to four times with the lyrics “I want to f*** you”.
Unconsented touching occurred when he brushed across her chest, he would later touch her genitals multiple times while she was sleeping and drowsy due to intoxication.
She woke twice to Mohammed touching her genitals without consent, the first time she asked him what he was doing, and he moved his hand, the second time she grabbed his arm and pushed him.
She called the police after messaging her friends and husband about what had happened, and he was arrested shortly after.
Mohammed’s appeal against his conviction and sentence was denied by the Court of Appeal in April this year.
He then tried the Supreme Court on the grounds the trial judge erred in failing to give a lies direction to the jury, and the prosecutor misled the jury at the trial by misstating evidence. The Supreme Court upheld the decision stating his argument was the same.
“In the applicant’s trial, his counsel did not request a lies direction and there is no suggestion that counsel was negligent in that regard,” the Supreme Court said.
“The submissions for the applicant in support of the application for leave largely repeat those advanced in the Court of Appeal.
“We are not satisfied that there is any risk that a miscarriage of justice may occur if leave is declined.”
The decision said the Court of Appeal had accepted there had been errors by the Crown prosecutor but concluded none led to a miscarriage of justice.
“We do not consider that it is in the interests of justice for this court to grant leave to appeal in this case.”
Hazel Osborne is an Open Justice reporter for NZME and is based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington. She joined the Open Justice team at the beginning of 2022, previously working in Whakatāne as a court and crime reporter in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.
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