Woman's Ordeal After Abduction and Rape by Fake Taxi Driver
A woman who was abducted and raped by a man impersonating a taxi driver has recounted her harrowing experience.
On 7 August 2022, the woman—who remains anonymous but is referred to here as Sophie—believed she was in a legitimate taxi taking her home in Glasgow's Dennistoun area.
After dropping off her friend, the driver, Barzan Nawshowani, diverted her to a barber shop where he worked and raped her.
Initially, Nawshowani was sentenced to six years in prison; however, following a Crown appeal, his sentence was increased to eight years, along with an additional three years of supervision.
Sophie expressed that given the severity of the crime, the sentence should have been between 15 and 16 years.
New sentencing guidelines for rape offences came into effect in Scotland last month, prescribing longer jail terms for cases similar to this.
"Sometimes you get that feeling of just lock him up and throw away the key," Sophie said.
"Despite the appeal, the charges were abduction and rape. I think those two together, I think it needed to be a lot longer, 15, 16 years."
Sophie's friend had identified the "taxi" after a night out in Glasgow.
"He took her home first – which we thought was odd because she lived a bit further away – then I was taken to Dennistoun," Sophie explained.
"But the car pulled up quite a bit away from where I was supposed to be.
"My alarms were starting to go off that something's not quite right here. But I'd had a few drinks and was slightly impaired. I thought just get home."
The driver told Sophie he worked at the nearby barber shop, KS Turkish Barbers, and proceeded to unlock and open the shutters.
Sophie sensed that something terrible was about to happen and felt her body freeze in fear.
"I was going through my head 'how do I get out of this?' but my body couldn't move," she said.
"He initially opened the door and from there it was very fast. The next thing I remember is being in the middle of that barber shop with the door locked and the shutters down and it was such a quick turnaround.
"Mainly in my head was 'just do as you are told'. My immediate thought was that he might kill me."
Sophie noticed a back door and hoped it might be an exit, but it was not.
"He then approached me and it became quite aggressive and violent," she said. "I just froze again.
"He was a lot taller than me, older than me, stronger than me. There was not anything that anyone in that circumstance could do differently."
"I was saying 'no, stop' and crying my eyes out. It was so intense and scary. I don't think I have been more terrified in all my life.
"When it was all over he went out first, unlocked the door, shutters came up and I ran out and collapsed onto the street."
After escaping, Sophie called her friend and ran home.
"When I got in, I couldn't lift myself up off the floor. I couldn't control anything," she said.
"I wanted to stay there and have the ground swallow me. I was more terrified I would be blamed. There was a shame even from that point.
"It was something you should never have but that was the immediate thing for me. My friend said 'no, I'm going to report this'."
Within days, police arrested Nawshowani.
'I Felt Like I Was Under Scrutiny'
Sophie was initially hesitant to inform her family about the assault due to concerns about their reactions.
"I waited about a week before I told my parents," she said. "It was that feeling of shame, I was so worried how other people would take it and their reactions rather than my own.
"I was on autopilot – everything was going on around me but I wasn't aware of it.
"When I told my mum, it was silence for a minute. She was trying not to cry for me. Then she said we want you to come home. We are going to work through this.
"I wanted to put it away and ignore it and I knew the second I saw their faces it would hit me - and it did. Like a truck."
"It was hard seeing my dad so upset and processing it all – it was one of the hardest things of the whole experience seeing them upset."
During the trial, Sophie gave her testimony via video link, describing the experience as "horrific."
"When it came to the day of giving evidence, I just crumbled," she said. "It was panic attack after panic attack.
"I felt like I was under scrutiny, especially with the cross-examination."
Sophie met the prosecutor before the trial and found him to be kind.
"Thankfully he was very nice. He told me his cross examination wasn't personal but he was just doing his job."
This initially provided some comfort, but during cross-examination, Sophie was asked if it was "just a night out gone wrong."
"I just really put my walls up and was like, 'no'," she said. "I think it's the last thing that you're prepared for almost because you're prepared to relive it all and you know it's going to happen and it's emotional, but that defence questioning, it brings out that anger in you."
When Nawshowani was first sentenced, Sophie felt a sense of validation.
"It's validating because it's like, 'okay, yeah, I am right'," she said. "This did happen and it is taken seriously.
"But then shortly after I was like 'that is not a lot'."
The sentence was later increased to eight years after the Crown's appeal.
Sophie expressed satisfaction with the increased sentence but noted it was insufficient time for her to heal before Nawshowani's release.
"The shame shouldn't be with me and the control shouldn't be with him," she said.
"The shame should be with him and the control with me."
