PHV driver has his conviction upheld for the rape of male passenger

A Liverpool private hire driver who was found guilty of rape in 2017 has failed to have his conviction overturned.  

Khaldon Mohammed, was jailed for six-and-a-half years back in January 2017 for the rape of a male passenger. The court heard the victim got into Mohammed's vehicle after a night out, and although he was drunk, he was not so drunk that he did not know what he was doing. The victim was offered to move into the front passenger seat after Mohammed started a conversation with him so he could hear better. The court heard that the conversation took "a strange and sinister twist" when Mohammed began to ask his victim about his sexual orientation and came out with the question "do you like d***?" Not long after the bizarre questioning, Mohammed unzipped his jeans and forced his victims head into his lap to perform a sex act. Prosecutor, Arthur Gibson, said after Mohammed had "finished" the journey ended and the victim got out and ran into his home. Khaldon Mohammed has always pleaded his innocence and launched an appeal based on fresh evidence from another private hire driver who said he recognised the victim as a man who once offered him oral sex as payment. Three top judges refused Mohammed's bid to appeal his conviction, ruling that the new witness had only a "fleeting glance" of his passenger, and that there had been a 19 month gap between the time he picked up the man and the time he was shown a picture of Mohammed's victim. The judge said: "Each of the three members of this court takes the view that the fresh evidence raises no reasonable doubt as to the guilt of Khaldon Mohammed " Mohammed had also lied in his police interview and had said he allowed the man to perform oral sex on him because he was "curious", which the judges found to be highly improbable. The appeal was dismissed and the original sentence upheld.