Taxi driver who sexually assaulted lone teenager as he drove her home from night out jailed

A taxi driver who sexually assaulted a lone teenager as he drove her home from a night out has been jailed.

Jaswinder Singh, 51, sexually assaulted the 18-year-old while continuing to drive his cab, a court was told.

The attack happened in the Camelon area of Falkirk after Singh picked the teenager up at a taxi rank in Falkirk town centre in the early hours of the morning.

She had been directed to his cab by taxi marshals after leaving a nearby nightclub after a night out with friends and workmates.

She told a jury she had got into the front seat of his taxi, where Singh went on to sexually assault her.

The teenager said she had “panicked” when Singh then stopped the car at the end of the journey.

She said: “I remember trying to open the car door. He grabbed me, He pulled me towards him and kissed me. His tongue was in my mouth. I remember tasting cigarettes.”

Once out of the car she ran home, let herself in, and went straight to her father and stepmother’s room “very upset, borderline hysterical”.

She told her father what had happened and he phoned police, who arrived at the house within minutes.

The first officer on the scene said: “The victim looked as if she was completely distraught.”

Singh was later arrested and his DNA was found on the victim.

Singh had denied sexual assault and claimed: “It’s all lies.”

The incident happened on February 4, 2024.

Singh appeared for sentence at Falkirk Sheriff Court on Tuesday after being found guilty in February of the sexual assault.

After a two-day trial, a jury of eight men and seven women took less than an hour to return the majority verdict.

Solicitor Gordon Addison, defending, said Singh was a first offender and had no other cases outstanding.

Sheriff Maryam Labaki jailed Singh for two and a half years and ordered that he should be placed on the sex offenders’ register.

She told him: “The complainer was a vulnerable young person trusting you to deliver her home safely. You gravely breached that position of trust by sexually assaulting her.”

Prosecutor Alistair McDermid said Singh, a taxi driver for 16 years, had subjected his lone and vulnerable victim to “a terrifying and vicious sexual assault”.