University student driven to isolated forest and raped by taxi drive – who then demanded Sh700 fare

Birmingham: A university student has told of her terrifying taxi ride when a cab driver took her to isolated woodland and sexually assaulted her – then demanded a £50 fare.

Lily Wright, 22, flagged down the taxi with friend Jamielee Smalldon following a night out.

But after dropping 21-year-old Miss Smalldon at her house Mohammed Iqbal, a father of three, drove Miss Wright to secluded woodland and sexually assaulted her.

He then drove her home – and ordered she pay him £50 for the journey.

Miss Wright, who said the encounter left her “paralysed with fear”, has now spoken of her ordeal.

She said: “After what he’d just done to me, I couldn’t believe he had the nerve to charge me.

“I knew it should only cost around £20 and I didn’t have the money but I was desperate to get home. So I told him I did.

“As soon as I saw my house I didn’t wait for him to stop, I opened the car door and fled. I was running for my life.”

Miss Wright, who attends university in Birmingham, where she is from, recounted how she met Jamielee for a night out in March 2012.

After a couple of drinks, the pair took a taxi to a club.

But when they reached the queue, she felt tired so the pair decided to get a cab home.

“I dived in the back while Jamielee sat in the front,” she said.

“As we drove off I rummaged in my bag, I couldn’t find my phone anywhere I’d lost it.

“Jamielee was calm and said the driver could call to let her know when I got home.”

Miss Smalldon was dropped off at her house first.

Miss Wright said: “By the time we reached Jamielee’s house I was nodding off.

“To make sure I was okay she gave the driver her number and asked him to call her when I had safely arrived home. She thought she was looking out for me.

“Jamielee said goodbye then I moved to the front passenger seat so I could give the driver directions to my house.”

The taxi driver drove away in the wrong direction.

Miss Wright said: “Five minutes on, we were on a pitch black, quiet, country road.

“The driver stopped the car, and phoned Jamielee telling her I was home safely. But looking out the window I could see only trees.

“Confused and scared, I sat in silence, no idea why we’d stopped. All I could do was panic.”

Iqbal got out of the car and walked around the front.

Opening her door he bent down and grabbed her trousers.

She said: “He began to tug on them, but I held them tight, trying to pull them up.

“Before, I’d been so tired, I couldn’t wait to collapse into bed. Now I was wide awake, frantically fighting back.

“I begged him to take me home. I was crying and squirming around in my seat.”

Despite her struggles, the driver performed a sex act on her.

She said: “I was paralysed with fear. It was disgusting and the whole time I was convinced he was going to kill me.

“I just thought he’s going to rape me. I had tears streaming down my face crying stop.

“After what seemed an eternity, he stopped and released me from his grip.

“I was hysterical and asked him what he was going to do to me. He smirked back at me, making my stomach lurch.

“I was locked in the car. Then he got back into the front seat.”

Miss Wright begged Iqbal to take her home but the brazen sex attacker told her it would cost her £50.

Miss Wright says: “I told him I’d pay anything.

“I was just praying that he would actually take me home and not continue that abuse.

They reached the house and Miss Wright pushed open the door when he stopped the car and ran to her house.

She banged on the front door and her dad Tom Wright, 56, found his terrified daughter on the front step.

Miss Wright said: “I collapsed into the living room, blaming my lost phone for the reason I was hysterical.

Miss Wright’s sister Elizabeth, 18, also came downstairs, to see what the noise was about and Miss Wright confessed she had been attacked.

Miss Wright says: “Elizabeth was shocked but helped me stay calm and we called police.

“I was exhausted, but I knew I had to remember as much as I could to help them.

“They asked me to change out my jeans and top, and bag them up as evidence.

“I had to give them my underwear so they could examine it.

“It was so humiliating. The whole process took nearly ten hours. I was so traumatised I almost backed out. After the tests I went home.

“I had a bath, desperate to scrub away the previous night.

“But I knew I had to get this driver off the road or another girl would be his next victim.”

Seven days later Miss Wright received a call with news from the police.

She says: “They told me they had traced Iqbal, using CCTV footage, and found my phone in his car. “

At Guildford Crown Court in September 2012, Iqbal, then 34, of Reigate, Surrey, pleaded not guilty to two sex attacks – one on Miss Wright and one on another woman in his taxi.

Miss Wright said: “Taking the stand was horrible. I didn’t look at Iqbal but I wanted him to look at me.”

On the last day of the five day trial, Miss Wright received another call from the police.

She said: “Some DNA evidence had been retrieved from the first victim’s underwear.

“The next day police revealed the court had presented the evidence, and my attacker had changed his plea to guilty to two counts of sexual assault and one count of kidnap.

“I was so relieved I wouldn’t have to return to court.”

He was jailed for five and a half years in October 2012.

Miss Wright said: “I couldn’t believe he was a serial offender and wondered how many other girls he planned on attacking.

“I believe women should trust taxi drivers, and take a taxi rather than walking home alone at night.

“But they should book a registered taxi rather than waving one down in the street.

“You’re putting your safety in their hands. And I learnt my lesson the hard way.”