A Pakistani taxi driver in Switzerland accused of crimes including abduction has been given a short jail sentence for the rape and sexual assault of six passengers.
In addition to the sexual assaults and rape, alleged to have taken place between February 2010 and March 2016, the defendant faced charges of multiple counts of attempted grievous bodily harm (GBH) at the trial on Wednesday, as he could have infected other people with HIV.
The public prosecutor’s office said that on March 26th, 2016, the father-of-five picked up an 18-year-old Australian woman as a client in the early hours of the morning, the Luzerner Zeitung reports.
Instead of driving her to the address she requested, the Pakistani stopped next to a small alleyway in Kriens and raped the teenager on the back seat of his cab, according to the indictment.
“I did something that was sh**. But I did not use force, it just happened,” the 45-year-old said when questioned over the attack in court, where he spoke through an interpreter.
Asked whether he raped the woman, the defendant told the judge: “The records say I did, but I say that I did not do it.”
In addition to the Australian, who local media reports was visiting Switzerland on a language exchange trip, the taxi driver is also accused of sexually assaulting five other passengers, who were aged between 17 and 25 years.
Lucerne Criminal Court heard how police were led to arrest the Pakistani after reports revealed a distinct pattern of behaviour in which he targeted intoxicated females and then groped them.
In one instance he was driving two young women home from a ball. When one of them left the taxi, the defendant drove the woman’s friend to a secluded location rather than the address she had requested before pulling his victim’s underwear down and sexually assaulting her, the court heard.
While the prosecution had requested a seven-year prison term for the accused, emphasising the seriousness of his crimes and his seeming lack of repentance, the judge sentenced him to just three years, six months of which would be unconditional.