Man sentenced to community detention for posing as Uber driver, indecently assaulting woman

Tawfiq Alasaad in the Wellington District Court.

A woman who was indecently assaulted by a man posing as an Uber driver had just finished five years of therapy for complex post-traumatic stress disorder and says the view of the world she worked so hard to rebuild has been shattered.

Tawfiq Alasaad appeared in the Wellington District Court today facing a representative charge of indecent assault. He was sentenced to five months of community detention and 18 months of intensive supervision - meaning he must complete any and all rehabilitative processes required of him.

The charges relate to a night in March of 2021 when his 24-year-old victim, a visitor to Wellington, left a party on Wellington’s waterfront. She ordered an Uber back to the address she was staying at and waited - but Alasaad pulled up.

He said he was her Uber and locked his back doors so that she had to climb into the front passenger seat. Once she was inside, he locked all the doors and drove off.

She became suspicious when he asked her to put her address into his phone, and then noticed he did not look like the picture of the driver in her Uber app.

He put his hand on her thigh as he drove through the city.

He touched her thigh several more times, circling a tattoo on her leg and touching a scar and when they arrived at the victim’s destination, she found the door to exit the car was locked.

“That night when I realised that man was not who he said he was, I thought that was it and everything I had worked for had been for nothing,” she told the court during a victim impact statement.

“That despite it all, I was about to become a statistic and there was nothing I could do about it.”

Alasaad asked if she was going to sleep and when she said yes, he slid his hand up her thigh, under her skirt and touched the outside of her underwear asking if she wanted to sleep with him. The victim managed to escape the car, and he tried to pull the back of her skirt - she slammed the door and Alasaad drove off.

His victim told the court she cannot take Ubers anymore, and had a near panic attack in her flatmate’s car when the child lock was accidentally put on.

“I still have nightmares, I’m always anxious and on edge and I can’t go anywhere without a planned escape route. My view of the world I worked so hard to rebuild has been shattered.”

She also said the legal system was incredibly difficult to navigate.

“Throughout this process every phone call was a reminder of how little control I really had. Trying to navigate the legal system as the victim I’m not sure I’ve ever felt less like I matter.

“We finally got to the week of the trial, nothing went to plan and it felt like it was never going to be over.”

These issues were compounded during sentencing when a miscommunication between the court and Alasaad’s interpreter meant the sentencing was delayed once in October for a pre-sentence report to be completed and then again for several hours today. On top of this, there were further delays due to industrial action being taken by the courts which meant breaks were enforced across the court.

Judge Sainsbury apologised to the victim, saying he appreciated the “deficiencies in the system” had made it difficult for her, but that they would not change the sentence.

“Those deficiencies in the ways we run the system can’t be an issue we take into account in the sentencing.”

He also acknowledged the delays should have been addressed earlier.

“That brings me to the second point – and it is frustrating in this case that this was not resolved earlier. It should be, that is the blunt reality it really should be.”

There was also an issue of a language barrier between Alasaad and the Crown, with Judge Sainsbury saying it was clear there was a “lack of understanding” from Alasaad as to what indecent assault means in the context of the legal system.

“The word assault is commonly used in a context that indicates there is violence but when that word is used in law, it includes far wider behaviour,” Sainsbury said.

“To touch someone who does not want to be touched is an assault. An indecent assault does not need to be violent in the terms of being physically violent.”

Judge Sainsbury said that although Alasaad had pled guilty he did so “at the eleventh hour”, shortly before the trial was due to begin.

“It seems to become clear back at the time the guilty plea was entered that you had been thinking you were not guilty of this charge because you had not hurt the victim by being physically violent to her. But somehow this meant this was not serious offending.”

The judge said he had tried to explain at the time how misguided this thinking was.

“Sadly, women and particularly young women in our community are too often the object of unwanted sexualised behavior by others. They have the right to live, work and socialise in safety.

“They have the right to be free of unwanted sexual attention, when that attention reaches a level when you touch a woman in a way that you did in this occasion it is serious.”

Judge Sainsbury said Alasaad needed “considerable work” to get him to understand the severity of his offending and intensive supervision would offer that opportunity.

“Considerable work that needs to be done to get through to you just how unacceptable your behaviour was and how it must never be repeated.

“Prison would mean you do not get that assistance.”