Ipswich Uber driver and rapist Sakaria Taufao claims trial was botched

An Ipswich Uber driver who raped a drunk teenage passenger and held onto a trophy from the sickening night has tried to appeal his conviction.

Uber driver Sakaria Taufao was jailed for seven years after he was found guilty of raping a woman, however he made an appeal to overturn the conviction.

Sakaria Taufao faced Brisbane District Court accused of raping a passenger.

At the end of January 2021, a jury found Taufao guilty of raping the 18-year-old woman in his car while on a secluded Redbank Plains road on September 5, 2015.

During the trial the court heard from the survivor who said she did not know if she had her licence when she was in the Uber, and that she last saw it earlier that night when she stuffed it into her bra.

After leaving the venue to escort a friend to a Taxi, the woman was refused entry for being too intoxicated.

The court heard she waited for one herself, but after about 20 minutes of waiting she decided to walk home.

Prosecutor Gawrych said the woman told a number or family, friends although the rape did not come to the attention of authorities until an officer found the woman’s driver’s licence in his car two years later.
“This card was a trophy,” Mr Gawrych said

The driver’s licence was the basis of Taufao’s appeal.

During the trial the court heard from the survivor who said she did not know if she had her licence when she was in the Uber, and that she last saw it earlier that night when she stuffed it into her bra.

The appeal court heard the grounds of the appeal submitted there was a miscarriage of justice because Judge Michael Burnett did not explain to the jury that if their verdict hinged on the licence, they needed to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt the woman had it on her when entering his BMW.

Taufao’s legal representative M. J. Jackson submitted that a “prudential direction” to the jury could not result in a guilty verdict unless that fact was proved beyond reasonable doubt.

During the review at the Brisbane District Court on March 11, 2022, three judges Fraser, McMurdo and Mullins, unanimously agreed to dismiss the appeal.

“It would have been an error for the trial judge to give the direction that (Taufao) now argues should have been given at the trial in relation to a fact that is expressed in terms that did not and could not reflect the prosecution case,” Judge Mullins said.

Due to time served in custody (three and a half years) Taufao is eligible for parole, although as a New Zealand citizen, when bail is granted he will be deported.