By Cameron Houston and David Estcourt
Predatory rideshare drivers – or men posing as them – prowling outside Melbourne’s inner-city bars and clubs have allegedly raped or sexually assaulted more than a dozen women since 2019.
Police and victims-of-crime advocates have warned that the actual number of sexual assaults committed by drivers could be higher because of underreporting.
CCTV footage shows Faizan Abdullah’s vehicle approaching Millie in 2021.Credit: Nine News
The victims are often young women who are intoxicated and alone when they accept a lift from a rideshare driver or someone posing as one.
While such incidents represent a small fraction of the thousands of rideshares taken in the city each week, legal figures are concerned by what they see as a surge in sexual assaults by drivers. In one recent judgment, County Court judge Liz Gaynor said sexual offending against young women by taxi or rideshare drivers “has become all too prevalent”.
Millie, who asked that her surname not be used, was 17 years old and celebrating the start of her final year in high school when international student Faizan Abdullah stopped outside a Brunswick property. He lied and claimed to be the Uber driver she had ordered.
Millie, who had been drinking but was not drunk, was taken by Abdullah to a dimly lit factory nearby, where she was repeatedly assaulted against a fence.
Abdullah initially told police that Millie had “made moves” on him, but he was later sentenced to 15 months in prison, before he was deported to Pakistan.
Faizan Abdullah initially told police that Millie had “made moves” on him, but he was later sentenced to 15 months in prison and later deported to Pakistan.Credit: A Current Affair
Millie is still haunted by the attack, which she said had shattered her ability to trust.
“I don’t feel comfortable in any outside setting and I can’t breathe or function properly when I see someone who looks like him,” she said.
“I don’t go out like I used to, and I don’t drink any more. I’m always on edge and also struggle to build relationships with new people, because of what happened.”
Millie, now 20, encouraged other women to be more vigilant when using rideshare platforms and share their location and trip status with others. But she said little could be done to reform the perpetrators.
“It can’t be stopped. It’s a hard truth, but the only thing you can do is tell women to be more careful. Men like this, who behave like animals, won’t change,” she said.
“One thing I realise now, is that when a woman is outside a pub waiting for an Uber or a taxi, they look like they’re waiting for an Uber or a taxi, which makes it easy to become a target.”
Millie’s is not an isolated case.
This masthead is aware of a number of other rape cases before the courts involving rideshare employees or drivers pretending to be employed by companies such as Uber, picking up young women outside venues and allegedly sexually assaulting them. In those cases, the allegations are yet to be proven and the accused is presumed innocent.
A police spokeswoman urged passengers to check the vehicle registration and driver’s details before accepting a ride, and immediately report any misconduct to police.
“While passengers using rideshare services can take simple steps to minimise risks, the responsibility is always on the perpetrator who commits these crimes, and the priority of police is to prevent and investigate these matters,” the spokeswoman said.
“It’s important any suspected criminal offending is reported to police so the incident is recorded and an investigation conducted.”
Several drivers recently convicted of rape and sexual assault have been handed long custodial sentences, with at least four deported upon their release from prison.
In March, Francesco De Luise was sentenced to at least six years in jail after pleading guilty to the sexual assault of three women while pretending to be an Uber driver.
Francesco De Luise has been jailed for six years for sexually assaulting women after pretending to be their Uber driver.
Between 2021 and 2022, the father-of-three had picked up three women after trawling outside bars in Richmond, Fitzroy and the CBD.
When initially interviewed by police, the 60-year-old lied and claimed the women had tried to seduce him, which County Court judge John Smallwood labelled as victim-blaming.
“This is an exercise in male entitlement and has to be absolutely condemned as such,” Smallwood said in his judgment.
The judge said De Luise’s offending was made more serious by the “sheer vulnerability and powerlessness” of the three women.
“Each of the victims was alone, each of the victims was intoxicated and effectively in circumstances where they found themselves trapped,” Smallwood said.
Last year, DiDi rideshare driver Absouslam Alsharif, 52, was sentenced to seven years in prison over the rape of a 20-year-old woman he picked up outside a Fitzroy nightclub in April 2021.
The woman had been celebrating a friend’s birthday and blacked out on the drive home, before gaining consciousness to find Alsharif sexually assaulting her.
Judge Gaynor described the offending by the father-of-five as appalling and remarked on the troubling surge in sexual assaults by rideshare drivers.
“Sexual offending against substance-affected young women by taxi or Uber drivers has become all too prevalent ... you breached this duty of care, which every share-driver owes to his or her passenger,” Gaynor said.
An Uber spokeswoman was unable to confirm how many drivers had been banned from the popular rideshare platform as a result of misconduct, but released a statement to The Age.
“At Uber, we continue to build cutting-edge technology and features to help improve safety, and users can access these in the safety toolkit in the app. These advances in safety are important – but for them to be effective, riders need to be in the right car,” the Uber spokeswoman said.
“We provide driver photos and number plates in the app, so riders can confirm it’s the right person picking them up before getting in.”
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