AN UBER taxi driver murdered his wife after searching on Google for ‘the most painful place to stab someone’, a court heard today.
Jose Leonardo repeatedly knifed 52 year-old Maria Mbombo in the body and arms and left her to bleed to death at their family home in north London, jurors heard.
He then went to buy beer from a local shop while his two sons discovered their mother lying lifeless on the floor of the bedroom, it is claimed.
Leonardo, 56, admits killing his wife but claims he should be cleared of murder because he suffered from a ‘loss of control’, jurors were told.
But prosecutor John Price QC revealed Leonardo’s phone had been used to search Google a few hours before the murder.
One read ‘can I survive stab in the eye’ and the other was ‘most painful place to stab someone’, the Old Bailey heard.
Websites related to these search terms were accessed between 2.41pm and 2.46pm.
Half an hour later Leonardo accessed a Camden Council parking permit website.
Mrs Mbombo, who worked as a cleaner, is last known to have used her phone to speak to a friend at 3.52pm.
Both her and Leonardo’s phones stopped being active from around 5pm.
Mr Price said: “Maria Mbombo died in her home at her husband’s hand.
“He attacked her and stabbed her many times with a knife.
“Because of the wounds he inflicted upon her, she bled to death. He was alone with her in their home while that happened.
“The prosecution allege that this is a clear case of murder.”
The couple met in 1988 and move to the UK from the Netherlands in 1990 with their two sons Carl, now 23, and Jacque, 27.
On 18 May this year Jacque returned to the family flat at Chestnut House, Maitland Park Villas, Belsize Park, to find the lights out and the door locked from the inside.
He got no answer despite buzzing and kicking the door and shouting ‘Open the Door’.
Mr Price said Leonardo must have been inside with his dead or dying wife at the time.
Leonardo left the flat an hour later without speaking to his sons and both Jacque and Carl ran inside to find their mother lying on her back on the bedroom floor.
She was wearing a white top and black knickers, her face was purple and she was not breathing.
Paramedics were called at 11.55pm and arrived to find her cold to the touch with rigor mortis in the jaw.
“It was confirmed she was dead and indeed must have been dead for some time,” said Mr Price.
Leonardo, who had cuts to his wrist, was arrested near the Super Choice Convenience Store in Queens Crescent after midnight.
He told officers: “My wife is killed.”
Leonardo, of Maitland Park Villas, Belsize Park, denies murder and perverting the course of justice.
The trial continues.
*** Update, if he is convicted, he is still Licensed by TfL. that may help him at his first Parole Board hearing.
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A taxi driver who grabbed a North Warwickshire woman he had
just dropped off and dragged her back into his car, where he tried to
force her to perform a sex act on him, has been jailed.
After the terrifying attack, during which his victim thought she was going to be raped, Atherstone-based driver Zaharul Hoque did 'everything in his power' to escape the consequences.
He pestered her with calls apologising and trying to persuade her to 'let me off this time' - and then accused her of lying after pleading not guilty to sexually assaulting her.
But Hoque (47) of Kingsleigh Drive, Castle Bromwich, was found guilty after a trial at Warwick Crown Court.
And following an adjournment for a report to be prepared on him Hoque, who had not told his family why he was on trial, was jailed for three years and ordered to register as a sex offender for life.
During the trial prosecutor Walter Bealby said that in April last year Hoque, who worked for Atherstone Taxis, picked up the woman and her friends after they had been out in Atherstone.
At one point she got out and said she would walk the rest of the way after Hoque allegedly stroked her leg.But minutes later, after dropping off the others, he pulled up next to her and apologised and offered to take her home.At first she declined, but then she got in, thinking there would be no further problem, but when he dropped her off near her home he asked for a kiss, which she refused.
Giving evidence, the young woman said: "I went to get my keys out, and I turned round, and he'd come from the back of the taxi. He was just there out of nowhere.
"He tried to give me a kiss and grabbed me by the head. He was just generally touching me. His hands were all over me.
"Next thing, he's just pushed me towards the taxi door, and the next thing I knew he's opened the door and I was inside and he was doing something with the doors.
"I was scared, I didn't know whether he was going to rape me. He started trying to undo his belt, and I was thinking I don't know if I'm going to end up in a ditch."
Sobbing as she continued with her evidence, she said: "I didn't know whether I was going to get out of there."
The woman, who had her phone in her hand and had managed to record his comments, which were played to the jury, began to struggle, and managed to get out of the car.
She ran to her home, from where she said she phoned the taxi firm and shouted abuse at them over what had happened.
The jury heard she then had the first of three calls from Hoque, pleading: "I do apologise. Do me a favour, don't complain me. I do apologise, I do apologise. Let me off this time."
There were two further calls in a similar vein, and Mr Bealby told the jury: "The prosecution say they amount, in effect, to an admission by the defendant that he acted inappropriately."
But when Hoque was arrested, he claimed her account was a lie and that there had been no physical contact apart from her giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek when he dropped her off.
He maintained his account in court, and following his conviction Judge Sylvia de Bertodano commented: "He has fought this in the teeth of the evidence, which he has repeatedly lied about and done everything he can to avoid a conviction."
Jailing Hoque, she told him: "You took advantage of her being on her own. You dragged her back into your taxi, and she thought you were going to rape her."She recorded it, and we could hear the recording in court.
"Afterwards she immediately made a complaint to the taxi office. You pestered her with calls not to go ahead with the case, and she had to come to court to give evidence.
"You have done everything in your power to get out of the consequences, even lying to the probation officer who prepared the pre-sentence report by giving her a different account."
Judge de Bertodano continued: "Young women who get into taxis on their own are in a vulnerable position and have to feel they can trust the taxi driver.
"If taxi drivers behave to female customers in this way, they will be very badly affected.
"In her [impact] statement she said she feels depressed and gets flashbacks. It is a serious ordeal going through it again in court. She is a very courageous young woman.
"I have read references which say you are a hard-working and respectable individual, but she saw a completely different side of you."
----------------------------------------------
WYKE
A jury has heard how a private hire driver carried on with his shift and picked up another fare after fatally injuring a pedestrian.
Dewsbury man Mohammed Imtiaz told investigating officers that he thought youths had thrown a brick at his Toyota Corolla when its windscreen was shattered in the early hours and even though he stopped he couldn’t see 28-year-old Vicky Holland lying seriously injured on Whitehall Road in Wyke.
But prosecutor David Gordon suggested that Imtiaz’s decision to drive off was “indicative of a guilty conscience” on his part.
Shortly after the collision Imitiaz picked up three more passengers and told them that his car had been damaged by a brick, but Mr Gordon said the witnesses described the defendant making “a quick and sharp manoeuvre” to avoid Whitehall Road when they saw the emergency services at the scene.
Miss Holland, who lived in Scholes, died in hospital about 11 hours after the collision in May last year.
Bradford Crown Court heard today (Tues) that Imtiaz, 45, of Healds Road, carried on working and only went to went to the police station after he got home and saw the extent of the damage to his vehicle.
Imtiaz has denied causing Miss Holland’s death by careless driving, but Mr Gordon said the prosecution’s case was that the defendant was not paying proper care and attention to what was going on ahead of him otherwise he would have seen her crossing the road.
Mr Gordon said the evidence of a collision investigator indicated that Miss Holland had been crossing from the driver’s offside that night and there was no evidence of the Imtiaz braking or swerving to avoid her.
He told the jury that the issue for them to consider was whether his driving immediately prior to the collision fell below that of a “reasonable and competent driver.”
The court heard that there were no witnesses to the collision or CCTV footage of it although a woman in a nearby pub had heard a loud thud while she was watching television.
Mr Gordon said there was no evidence that Imtiaz had been speeding and the sightline to the scene of the collision was said to be more than 200 metres.
Imtiaz went to the police about an hour-and-a-half after the collision and said he hadn’t been aware that he had collided with someone.
The court heard that Miss Holland had been drinking alcohol, but there was no evidence to suggest she was walking quickly or running across the road.
Mr Gordon showed the jury photographs of the damage caused to Imtiaz’s vehicle in the collision and he told them they would also see footage from a police reconstruction of the scene.
The trial continues.
------------------------------------------
Black riders faced longer wait times and more frequent cancellations than white riders, the research indicates.
Women were more likely to be overcharged or taken on elongated routes, it says.
Researchers took nearly 1,500 rides in Seattle and Boston, gathering data from three taxi-hailing companies.
The two year study was conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and the University of Washington.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37834774
---------------------------------------------------------
EXETER
http://www.chesterstandard.co.uk/news/168554/woman-convicted-of-a-racially-aggravated-assault-on-chester-taxi-driver.aspx?After the terrifying attack, during which his victim thought she was going to be raped, Atherstone-based driver Zaharul Hoque did 'everything in his power' to escape the consequences.
He pestered her with calls apologising and trying to persuade her to 'let me off this time' - and then accused her of lying after pleading not guilty to sexually assaulting her.
But Hoque (47) of Kingsleigh Drive, Castle Bromwich, was found guilty after a trial at Warwick Crown Court.
And following an adjournment for a report to be prepared on him Hoque, who had not told his family why he was on trial, was jailed for three years and ordered to register as a sex offender for life.
During the trial prosecutor Walter Bealby said that in April last year Hoque, who worked for Atherstone Taxis, picked up the woman and her friends after they had been out in Atherstone.
At one point she got out and said she would walk the rest of the way after Hoque allegedly stroked her leg.But minutes later, after dropping off the others, he pulled up next to her and apologised and offered to take her home.At first she declined, but then she got in, thinking there would be no further problem, but when he dropped her off near her home he asked for a kiss, which she refused.
Giving evidence, the young woman said: "I went to get my keys out, and I turned round, and he'd come from the back of the taxi. He was just there out of nowhere.
"He tried to give me a kiss and grabbed me by the head. He was just generally touching me. His hands were all over me.
"Next thing, he's just pushed me towards the taxi door, and the next thing I knew he's opened the door and I was inside and he was doing something with the doors.
"I was scared, I didn't know whether he was going to rape me. He started trying to undo his belt, and I was thinking I don't know if I'm going to end up in a ditch."
Sobbing as she continued with her evidence, she said: "I didn't know whether I was going to get out of there."
The woman, who had her phone in her hand and had managed to record his comments, which were played to the jury, began to struggle, and managed to get out of the car.
She ran to her home, from where she said she phoned the taxi firm and shouted abuse at them over what had happened.
The jury heard she then had the first of three calls from Hoque, pleading: "I do apologise. Do me a favour, don't complain me. I do apologise, I do apologise. Let me off this time."
There were two further calls in a similar vein, and Mr Bealby told the jury: "The prosecution say they amount, in effect, to an admission by the defendant that he acted inappropriately."
But when Hoque was arrested, he claimed her account was a lie and that there had been no physical contact apart from her giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek when he dropped her off.
He maintained his account in court, and following his conviction Judge Sylvia de Bertodano commented: "He has fought this in the teeth of the evidence, which he has repeatedly lied about and done everything he can to avoid a conviction."
Jailing Hoque, she told him: "You took advantage of her being on her own. You dragged her back into your taxi, and she thought you were going to rape her."She recorded it, and we could hear the recording in court.
"Afterwards she immediately made a complaint to the taxi office. You pestered her with calls not to go ahead with the case, and she had to come to court to give evidence.
"You have done everything in your power to get out of the consequences, even lying to the probation officer who prepared the pre-sentence report by giving her a different account."
Judge de Bertodano continued: "Young women who get into taxis on their own are in a vulnerable position and have to feel they can trust the taxi driver.
"If taxi drivers behave to female customers in this way, they will be very badly affected.
"In her [impact] statement she said she feels depressed and gets flashbacks. It is a serious ordeal going through it again in court. She is a very courageous young woman.
"I have read references which say you are a hard-working and respectable individual, but she saw a completely different side of you."
----------------------------------------------
WYKE
A jury has heard how a private hire driver carried on with his shift and picked up another fare after fatally injuring a pedestrian.
Dewsbury man Mohammed Imtiaz told investigating officers that he thought youths had thrown a brick at his Toyota Corolla when its windscreen was shattered in the early hours and even though he stopped he couldn’t see 28-year-old Vicky Holland lying seriously injured on Whitehall Road in Wyke.
But prosecutor David Gordon suggested that Imtiaz’s decision to drive off was “indicative of a guilty conscience” on his part.
Shortly after the collision Imitiaz picked up three more passengers and told them that his car had been damaged by a brick, but Mr Gordon said the witnesses described the defendant making “a quick and sharp manoeuvre” to avoid Whitehall Road when they saw the emergency services at the scene.
Miss Holland, who lived in Scholes, died in hospital about 11 hours after the collision in May last year.
Bradford Crown Court heard today (Tues) that Imtiaz, 45, of Healds Road, carried on working and only went to went to the police station after he got home and saw the extent of the damage to his vehicle.
Imtiaz has denied causing Miss Holland’s death by careless driving, but Mr Gordon said the prosecution’s case was that the defendant was not paying proper care and attention to what was going on ahead of him otherwise he would have seen her crossing the road.
Mr Gordon said the evidence of a collision investigator indicated that Miss Holland had been crossing from the driver’s offside that night and there was no evidence of the Imtiaz braking or swerving to avoid her.
He told the jury that the issue for them to consider was whether his driving immediately prior to the collision fell below that of a “reasonable and competent driver.”
The court heard that there were no witnesses to the collision or CCTV footage of it although a woman in a nearby pub had heard a loud thud while she was watching television.
Mr Gordon said there was no evidence that Imtiaz had been speeding and the sightline to the scene of the collision was said to be more than 200 metres.
Imtiaz went to the police about an hour-and-a-half after the collision and said he hadn’t been aware that he had collided with someone.
The court heard that Miss Holland had been drinking alcohol, but there was no evidence to suggest she was walking quickly or running across the road.
Mr Gordon showed the jury photographs of the damage caused to Imtiaz’s vehicle in the collision and he told them they would also see footage from a police reconstruction of the scene.
The trial continues.
------------------------------------------
Ride-hailing companies such as Uber
and Lyft may discriminate against black people and women, a study from
three US universities suggests.
Women were more likely to be overcharged or taken on elongated routes, it says.
Researchers took nearly 1,500 rides in Seattle and Boston, gathering data from three taxi-hailing companies.
The two year study was conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and the University of Washington.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37834774
---------------------------------------------------------
EXETER
A Judge has issued a warrant for the arrest of a taxi driver
who has disappeared while awaiting trial for sexually assaulting a
female passenger.
Wahib Tameem has lost touch with his legal team and it is thought he may have left the country and possibly returned to his home country of Iraq.
Tameem, aged 59, of Mount Pleasant Road, Exeter, denied sexually assaulting the same woman passenger twice on June 18, 2016.
He is due to stand trial at Exeter Crown Court on December 12 but Mr Paul Grumbar, defending, said he had lost touch with his solicitors.
Recorder Mr Richard Stead issued a warrant for Tameem's arrest and adjourned the case until the trial date.
http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/warrant-for-exeter-taxi-driver-facing-sex-charges/story-29857713-detail/story.html?
-----------------------------------------------------------
A woman has been found guilty of attacking and racially abusing a taxi driver in Chester.
Patricia Young, of Morton Road, Blacon, was found guilty after a trial at Chester Magistrates Court of racially aggravated assault against KingKabs driver Muhammad Iqbal.
Mr Iqbal told the court he had given a lift to three women and one man from St Theresa’s Social Club, on Blacon Avenue, to Worcester Square, where two of the women and the man got out of the taxi.
He said he was paid a total of £8 by the group, which included the fare for taking Young, 43, back to her home address.
Mr Iqbal said once they set off again Young called him “miserable” and then called him a racist term, before telling him to “go back to your country”.
Wahib Tameem has lost touch with his legal team and it is thought he may have left the country and possibly returned to his home country of Iraq.
Tameem, aged 59, of Mount Pleasant Road, Exeter, denied sexually assaulting the same woman passenger twice on June 18, 2016.
He is due to stand trial at Exeter Crown Court on December 12 but Mr Paul Grumbar, defending, said he had lost touch with his solicitors.
Recorder Mr Richard Stead issued a warrant for Tameem's arrest and adjourned the case until the trial date.
http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/warrant-for-exeter-taxi-driver-facing-sex-charges/story-29857713-detail/story.html?
-----------------------------------------------------------
A woman has been found guilty of attacking and racially abusing a taxi driver in Chester.
Patricia Young, of Morton Road, Blacon, was found guilty after a trial at Chester Magistrates Court of racially aggravated assault against KingKabs driver Muhammad Iqbal.
Mr Iqbal told the court he had given a lift to three women and one man from St Theresa’s Social Club, on Blacon Avenue, to Worcester Square, where two of the women and the man got out of the taxi.
He said he was paid a total of £8 by the group, which included the fare for taking Young, 43, back to her home address.
Mr Iqbal said once they set off again Young called him “miserable” and then called him a racist term, before telling him to “go back to your country”.
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