A 64-year-old man was arrested and charged yesterday Monday,
April 1, 2014 by detectives from the child squad in Sydney for allegedly raping
a 10-year-old hearing-impaired girl.
The man worked for a company in charge of transporting children
to and from school.
The case has been adjourned till next month for further hearing
and bail has also been denied.
The arrest was made following reports to police late last year
the taxi driver, a Fairfield resident, had allegedly assaulted the girl as he
transported her to and from school.
The offences, which are alleged to have occurred on a number of
occasions in 2009 when the girl was aged 10 and 11, took place in the vehicle
the man used to transport her to and from school.
At the time, the man worked for a company contracted to
transport children to and from schools.
On a number of occasions, the man allegedly picked the girl and
other children up from their schools in south-western Sydney.
After dropping all of the other children off at their homes, the
man would allegedly park his vehicle a few streets away from the girl’s home
and assault her.
The man was arrested at Liverpool police station yesterday and
charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault, two counts of
aggravated sexual assault of child under 16, two counts of aggravated sexual
intercourse with a child under 10-14 years (physically impaired), one count of
attempted sexual intercourse with a child over 10 years and under 14 years.
The man was refused bail and will next appear in Campbelltown
Local Court on May 28.
Now the NSW Council has called for any cabbies found guilty of
sexually assaulting passengers to be banned from driving taxis for life
“We believe there should be stronger penalties for taxi drivers
who have been convicted and found guilty of sexual assault against
passengers,’’ said NSW Taxi Council CEO Roy Wakelin-King.
“Drivers take on a position of trust and where that trust is
breached, such as sexual assault, there should be increased penalties and that
should include life-time bans for driving a taxi,’’ he said.
Mr Wakelin-King said rigorous background checks are done on taxi
drivers, especially ones involved in the assisted school travel program for the
NSW Department of Education.
The vast majority of the 20,000 taxi drivers in NSW do the right
thing, he said.
NSW Taxi Driver Association president Anne Turner says there
needs to be tougher taxi licencing regulations.
“They give you a licence within a couple of months. I think it
should go longer than that,’’ she said..
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