Taxi drivers comb the streets for victims – as rapes by cabbies soar

Women are more vulnerable than ever on the streets of London, with rapes by taxi drivers more than tripling last year, MailOnline can reveal.

A Freedom of Information request to the Metropolitan Police by Legal Expert found the number of rapes increased 259 per cent in 2023.

The number of sexual assaults increased 11 per cent from 161 to 179 while there were 79 rapes, tripled the figure of just 22 in 2022.

London cabbies raped dozens of women in the early hours of the morning but the most common time for a taxi sex pest to assault a woman was actually during the rush hour between 5 and 6pm.

The capital has been plagued by rapist cabbies before. The most notorious is black cab rapist John Worboys, 65, who was jailed indefinitely in 2009 after he was found guilty of 19 offences involving attacks on 12 women.

He was cleared for release in 2018, but the decision was overturned by the courts after a furious public backlash.

Subsequently Worboys received a life sentence when more victims came forward. 

After hearing about the latest shocking rise in taxi driver assaults, Rape Crisis’s head of policy and public affairs Amelia Handy told MailOnline: ‘Women have the right to go about their daily lives without being subjected to sexual violence, whether they are travelling, commuting, at work or at home. 

‘Sexual violence and abuse against women and girls is widespread and pervasive. 

‘All too often, men and boys are left out of the conversations on women’s safety and the onus is wrongly left on women to think of ways to keep themselves safe. 

‘We need to challenge the harmful attitudes and beliefs that underpin male entitlement to sexually abuse women and girls, and respond robustly to those who commit sexual offences.’

Officers arrested 146 predatory London cabbies last year who prowled the streets as they looked for women to assault. 

One taxi driver rapist jailed last year was a private hire minicab driver who kept a pencil case containing lube in his car.

Homayon Ahmadi, 35,  from Uxbridge, West London, was jailed for 13 years after raping a female passenger and sexually assaulting two others.

He was convicted of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault and sentenced to 13 years in jail at Croydon Crown Court in March 2023.  

Police were first made aware of the vile taxi driver when a 41-year-old woman reported she was raped by a cab driver on the evening of April 19, 2021.

The woman said that during the journey, the driver pulled over to the side of the road and raped her. 

While the investigation into the rape was ongoing, a 21-year-old women called the police to report she and her friend had been sexually assaulted by a taxi driver in central London on July 25, 2021.

The woman told detectives that during the journey, the man stopped off at an off licence and bought some whisky.

One victim said he offered alcohol and asked them to come back to his house. 

When they felt threatened and tried to leave the car, the driver grabbed and sexually assaulted both women.

Officers were able to track Ahmadi down using cell data analysis and CCTV images.  

Once he was arrested, a DNA sample linked him to the earlier rape. Officers also found condoms in his minicab and and baby oil in his glove box.

Detective Constable Natalie Alchin, who led the investigation, said: ‘Ahmadi is a dangerous and predatory offender who used his position as a private hire driver to target vulnerable women as they made their way home.

‘The victims in this case showed great courage in coming forward to police. They have played a vital part in his conviction and we hope that this case encourages other women who have been subject to sexual offences to come forward.’

Last year, a double rapist who posed as an Uber driver was also jailed.

Michael Mehari, 39, prowled the streets of Kennington looking for victims.

In December 2019, the father followed a woman who had run out of battery on her phone and couldn’t order a cab as she walked home after a night out in south London at around 1.30am.

He dragged her onto a path in Kennington Gardens, hit her over the head to keep her quiet and raped her.

After the sickening attack, the woman ran away in ‘blind terror’. 

In her victim impact statement to the judge, she said: ‘Please protect other women from this man, and send a clear message to society and other men that this behaviour is abhorrent and will not be tolerated.

‘Please protect women.’

He had not been caught for that attack when in March 2022, he posed as a minicab driver and collected a woman who had ordered an Uber to Kings Cross station at around 3.30am.

When she fell asleep in the back seat, Mehari drove her to a quiet Kennington street, and raped her twice.

She later told the court: ‘The thought of being alone in the dark overwhelms me.

‘I got into this man’s vehicle believing he was my booked taxi, never expecting this to happen.

She added: ‘Even me saying ”you are raping me” didn’t seem to have an effect on him.

‘This man had no care in the world for what I wanted. He didn’t give me a choice, I felt violated and disgusting.’ 

The sexual deviant pleaded not guilty and claimed both sexual encounters were consensual.

However, a jury found him guilty of three counts of rape and he was sentenced to 19 years in jail.