Cab driver jailed for part in rape of clubber

A minicab driver from Canning Town has been jailed for nine years today after he drove a woman to his friend’s house where she was raped.

Salah Mohammed, of Varley Road, had been found guilty of kidnap and encouraging or assistance of the commission of a serious offence, namely rape, following a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

Jurors heard how on Friday, March 7 last year, Mohammed, 31, was having his cab cleaned at a car wash on Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch, when he was approached by a woman who asked him to take her friend home.

He was given £10 for the fare to drive the woman, in her 20s, home. She had been drinking and was feeling unwell.

The friend who had initially approached Mohammed took a photograph of the vehicle’s number plate and called the woman’s family to say she would be coming home.

When she did not arrive home, her disappearance was reported to police in the early hours of March 8.

It transpired that instead of driving her home, Mohammed had driven her to his friend Mohammed Sallah’s house in Hylands Road, Walthamstow, which was eight miles away.

It was there that Sallah, 38, raped her.

After the rape Mohammed drove her to Wood Green where she was let out and able to contact her family and police.

Sallah admitted rape at an earlier hearing and was jailed for seven years and two months.

Det Con Dele Bolude called it a “despicable crime”, adding: “I would like to praise the victim’s courage in coming forward and reporting it to police.

“I hope that this sentence sends a clear message regarding the seriousness of this type of offending and gives other victims of sexual offences the courage to come forward.”