Uber drivers linked to one sex attack a week, figures show

Uber drivers linked to one sex attack a week, figures show



After a meal with her boyfriend and drinks at a leaving party, the 26-year-old office worker called it a night. It was only 10.30pm, but she had to be in work early the next day so, using her smartphone, she summoned a cab via the Uber app. It was a decision she would live to regret.

Her driver, an Eritrean refugee who had been working for Uber for only three weeks, quickly made her feel uneasy.

‘You are very pretty,’ said Samson Haile, 32. He then asked if she had a boyfriend, before announcing: ‘I want to have sex with you.’

Next, he grabbed her leg, moving his hand up her thigh. Terrified, the woman screamed and jumped out of the Toyota Prius, fleeing into the London night.



Hours later, Haile was at it again, telling a female passenger: ‘I want to sleep in your bed.’ As luck would have it, she was an undercover policewoman and Haile would subsequently be arrested and linked to the first attack.

Some might dismiss it as a relatively minor incident, but its impact would be immense.

‘I have suffered from repeated flashbacks relating to the incident,’ the victim revealed in a statement read out in court in 2015, when Haile was jailed for eight months.

‘I feel helpless, isolated and vulnerable, and the incident has made me lonely. I now don’t like being in a vehicle with a man I don’t know. I had to move since the cab journey because I was so worried the man knew where I lived. I am haunted by the “what if?” scenarios.’



Earlier this month, a different court was hearing another case involving an Uber driver. This time, Jahir Hussain was jailed for 12 years for attacks on three separate women in London. He groped two and raped the third, cutting off their underwear with a knife after they fell asleep in the back of his cab.

A spokesman said Uber’s thoughts were with the victims, but added: ‘While these attacks did not take place on a trip booked through our app, we were still able to support the police in bringing this man to justice.’

Little wonder there are growing concerns that Uber’s aggressive expansion could be jeopardising passenger safety. MPs and unions are warning that new drivers are exploiting legislative loopholes to sidestep measures intended to safeguard the public, such as installing CCTV cameras in the back of cabs.

Questions have also been raised about whether pressure on Uber drivers to maximise their earnings is leading to them lending their vehicles to other drivers — so passengers have no idea who may be driving them home late at night.

Some will see such criticisms as sour grapes, whipped up by those who lost out after the Californian company launched its services in London in 2012.

The firm runs a smartphone app that allows users to hail a minicab at the tap of a screen using location software in the passenger and driver’s phones



A nearby driver is summoned, making it quicker, easier and cheaper than booking a minicab or hailing a taxi.

The app is connected to the passenger’s credit card, with journeys charged per mile and minute. Prices vary according to demand, with Uber taking a percentage of the fare and the majority going to the driver.

It is a huge hit. In London, the number of Uber vehicles exceeds the 24,000 black cabs, and it boasts more than 40,000 drivers across the 40 UK towns and cities it operates in.

But behind its rapid spread lie a number of controversies.

These include allegations that Uber enjoyed close ties with former Prime Minister David Cameron and his government.

This newspaper has highlighted claims that Downing Street is said to have orchestrated a lobbying campaign to get Boris Johnson, then London Mayor, to protect the company from onerous regulation. This was after Rachel Whetstone, Cameron’s close friend and the wife of his former adviser Steve Hilton, became Uber’s head of policy and communications. She has since quit.