Sharjeel Mirza: Ex Uber driver preys on, assaults drunk women

A former Uber driver attacked two women on separate nights after he found them drunk on the street and lied to get them into his car.

Mirza was pretending to be a registered Uber driver when he committed the crimes.

A former Uber driver sexually assaulted two women on different nights after he lured them into his car by claiming he was still working as a registered driver.

Sharjeel Mirza, 39, fronted the County Court on Thursday, pleading guilty to one charge of rape and two charges of sexual assault.

The court heard Mirza attacked two “very vulnerable” women whom he found visibly drunk on the streets at night.

Mirza found the first victim, a 19-year-old, sitting on a gutter in Melbourne’s CBD early on March 10, 2019, with her skirt having ridden up and her underwear exposed.

She was being helped by friends as she vomited.

Mirza stopped his car, which bore an Uber sticker, and asked her friends if they needed help, offering to drive the woman home.

Mirza falsely claimed he was both an Uber driver and a paramedic, saying he saw “these things all the time”.

The woman’s friends declined his offers but he insisted they could trust him and not to worry about the risk of her vomiting in his car.

The court heard Mirza told the friends not to use the Uber app, saying they would be unable to find him in such a busy area.

They went to put the woman in the back seat, but Mirza told them to put her in the front.

Her friend got in the back seat and they went to 7-Eleven to get bags for the woman to throw up into.

Mirza then convinced the friend to let him drive the woman home alone, saying the fare would cost more than $70 to bring the friend back to the city.

The friend exchanged phone numbers with Mirza and left.

As Mirza was driving the woman home he grabbed her hand and placed it on his genitalia.

He then rubbed the woman’s thigh, sexually assaulted and digitally raped her.

The court heard she tried to push his hands away and screamed at him to stop, but he screamed back “No”.

She tried to get out of the car but the doors were locked.

He went to the front door of her home about 1am and told the woman’s mother the woman was on the road.

She was found lying face down.

The woman told her mum and brother after they dragged her inside, “He’s a bad person and he did bad things”.

Her mum noticed her underwear had disappeared.

Mirza picked up the second victim, a 26-year-old, from outside a Fitzroy bar late on July 12, 2019 after her friend called an Uber to take her home.

The woman was very drunk when she got into Mirza’s front seat, and fell asleep.

She woke to him touching her thigh before he put his hands inside her underwear.

The court heard she pushed him away and ran from the car crying.

Mirza followed her and said he would take her home and not touch her.

After the woman got home she went to see her boyfriend and told him about the assault.

The second victim wrote an impact statement for the court, revealing the “shame and disgust” she had felt with herself, and the ongoing anxiety and difficulty in relationships she suffered.

Judge Chambers assured the victim she bore no responsibility for what happened to her, and should feel no shame.

The court heard Mirza, who had no criminal history, had formerly worked as an Uber driver but was not registered during the attacks.

He denied his crimes to police but went on to plead guilty during the court process.

A letter of Mirza’s “deepest apologies” was read to the court, and nine references attesting to his good character were tendered.

It was heard the accounting graduate came to Australia on a visa from Pakistan, was married with two children, and was very likely to be deported when released from jail.

Mirza’s lawyer argued the hardship his incarceration and likely deportation would cause to his family should be taken into account, as well as the delay in the court proceedings.