Taxi driver sexually assaulted teenage girl

Wahid Riaz was jailed for five years

A taxi driver has been jailed for sexually assaulting a teenage girl he picked up in his car.

"Despicable" Wahid Riaz, from Nelson, had picked up the victim from Burnley, just after midnight on 23 July 2023, Lancashire Police said.

During the journey she told Riaz how old she was, but he parked at the bottom of her street, told her to hug him and began kissing her before assaulting her and dropping her off at her house.

Riaz, 52, was jailed for five years at Preston Crown Court after being found guilty of a sexual offence.

'Vomited in bathroom'

During the journey he had told the victim she looked 16 or 17 and asked her if she had been with an Asian male, a conversation she captured on a video.

When she got into her house, she "went straight into the bathroom and vomited" before she "cried herself to sleep", police said

In a statement to the court, the victim said: "Immediately after the incident, I had a deep feeling of being dirty.

"I had really long baths and showers, and I would scrub my body so much I would make it red. I was just trying to feel clean."

She said as the incident happened in summer, she was "really conscious about what I was wearing".

"I was anxious and asked myself if my clothes were too revealing or if they showed too much skin, what might happen to me, as I blamed myself and what I wore that night," she said.

Det Con Ryan Benson, who led the investigation, said: "Wahid Riaz is a despicable individual who has a sordid sexual interest in children. He used his position as a taxi driver to isolate and then engage in sexual activity with a vulnerable young girl.

"This offence has had a profound and ongoing impact on the victim.

"Her bravery is a complete contrast to the cowardice Riaz has shown throughout this process, seeking to deny his criminal conduct despite the overwhelming evidence against him."