A taxi driver has been found guilty of raping a 20-year-old passenger in his vehicle on the outskirts of Cambridge.
Siddiq Mozumder, 33, of Roman Road in London, was on trial at Cambridge Crown Court where he denied raping a 20-year-old female victim last April.
On Tuesday, after deliberating for 12 hours and 46 minutes, the jury unanimously found Mozumder guilty.
The jury concluded Mozumder had raped the 20-year-old in an incident that took place on the outskirts of the city as he was driving her home from a night out in London.
The prosecution had told the court that the married father of four took advantage of the student when she was almost unconscious from the effects of drink.
The court heard that the woman had been drinking heavily on a night out in London. After beginning to feel ill, the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, called for a cab and arranged to be taken home to the Cambridge area.
The court was told that the woman could not remember much of what happened on the night, but she did recall Mozumder being on top of her with her bra up.
The assault was reported the following day.
Throughout the trial, Mozumder denied the attack and said the woman had been fully awake at the time.
He claimed she had climbed into the front of the taxi with him and had subsequently performed a sex act on him.
He said he was embarrassed at what had happened and was ashamed for betraying his wife.
David Matthews, prosecuting, said: "Just because she wasn't resisting you took it step by step, further and further."
During the trial, the court heard the woman was estimated to have drunk the equivalent of between two and three times the drink-drive limit during the evening.
Barry Kogan, for the defence, told the jury of 11 women and one man that, when the woman was interviewed by police, she was not certain that she had been raped.
Mr Kogan said Mozumder had never been in trouble before and was a quiet family man.
Mozumder will be sentenced at a later date in Norwich Crown Court where Judge Anthony Bate will return on November 16. A date for the sentencing has not yet been set.
http://goo.gl/BcBNny
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Hundreds of taxi drivers in Rio de Janeiro paralyzed Brazil’s second largest city on Wednesday in protest against their rival, the pioneering online taxi firm Uber.
Uber, worth an estimated $40 billion making it the world’s most valuable venture-backed start-up, has set out to revolutionise local transport services worldwide, from taxis to carpools to fast-food delivery.
In the Brazilian city of Rio on Wednesday, taxi drivers blocked off seven major traffic hotspots across the city during morning rush hour, provoking huge traffic jams and delays.
The protesters also positioned themselves in front of certain hotels and commercial centers, where customers often rely on Uber vehicles to move around.
Many drivers also held signs aloft denouncing Uber while others threw eggs at the doors of hotels which offer the Uber service to their guests.
Later in the day, different groups of protesters joined forces and marched together on the town hall of Rio de Janeiro, demanding that Uber be banned.
The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, signed a law in September banning Uber.
However, a judge threw the decision out on Oct. 9 for violating the Constitution’s right to free enterprise and ruled that the Brazilian state “could not prohibit a legal economic activity, open to private enterprise and fair competition.”
To date, Uber has been hit by court injunctions in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. Taxi driver protests against Uber have clogged streets in major European cities as well as in China and India.
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