‘Predator’ Uber driver found guilty of kidnappings, sexual assault and harassment

The victim of a predatory Uber driver says “Dunedin is a little bit safer” after he was convicted of kidnapping two women and locked up. The defendant appeared in the Dunedin District Court on Monday — nearly five months after his trial — where Judge Ajit Swaran Singh found him guilty of detaining two female passengers and sexually assaulting one of them. The man, who has interim name suppression until his sentencing in October, pleaded guilty at the trial’s outset to harassment and a charge under the Harmful Digital Communications Act. He sat in the back of the courtroom, praying audibly, as the judge delivered the verdicts and was remanded in custody without making a bail application. Erica* said she felt “vindicated” by the outcome after enduring many months of stalking-type behaviour at the hands of the taxi driver before being locked in his cab. “He’s a predator and he’s been held accountable in a way he didn’t feel he was ever going to be held accountable,” she told the Otago Daily Times. “Dunedin is a town full of vulnerable girls in our student population who should have the right to get into an Uber and be safe … Dunedin is a little bit safer now.” The court heard of two incidents which occurred inside the defendant’s car just two months apart in 2023. The first victim said she was offered a ride by the man while trying to evade an intoxicated male in Princes St. The defendant introduced himself as a taxi driver and locked the doors to keep out her pursuer. But during the drive home, she became increasingly uneasy as he made comments about her appearance. The woman told the court he stopped on a patch of gravel near her house and suggested a game of paper-scissors-rock. After winning the game, the defendant requested a kiss from the terrified passenger. When she tried to placate him with a peck on the cheek, he turned his head to kiss her mouth, and his advances continued. The victim tried to escape but found the door locked. The driver only released her when she tried to wind down her window, and she ran home to her husband in tears. A month later, the defendant obtained her personal details through the city council rates database and repeatedly tried to contact her, the court heard. Around the same time, he picked up Erica, who had been socialising in central Dunedin and was waiting for a taxi home. He claimed to be her Uber driver but then asked for payment when they reached her destination. When Erica objected, believing it had been paid through the app, he demanded she bare her breasts. The court heard the defendant only unlocked the doors when she threatened to cover his back seats in lipstick. She did not know it at the time but the man had been responsible for harassing her for almost a year leading up to the incident. After giving her a ride in 2022, the defendant discovered her identity and bombarded her social-media account with messages as well as leaving a hand-written letter in her mailbox and contacting her ex, making false allegations. “It was hideous,” Erica said. “I’m proud that I had the balls to fight when a lot around me were like, ‘why would you?’” She paid tribute to the other victim and also stressed her sympathy for the defendant’s wife, who was another innocent party. “She didn’t ask for it any more than I did,” Erica said. She also spoke in glowing terms about the support she had received through the court victim advisor, without which she doubted she would have stayed the course. Judge Singh ordered a report be compiled on the defendant, along with assessment of electronic-monitoring possibilities, but stressed that was not an indication of the likely outcome at sentencing. Crown prosecutor James Collins said he would be seeking a term of imprisonment. “He is where he should be,” Erica said. “And he will no longer do any more harm.” rob.kidd@odt.co.nz *Name changed to protect anonymity