Former taxi driver Rahul re-sentenced for indecently assaulting passenger

Rahul, a 27-year-old man with no surname, faced the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday after breaching a good behaviour order attached to a partially suspended jail sentence.

He received the four-month jail term, half of which he served in full-time custody, last year after he pleaded guilty to a charge of committing an act of indecency without consent.

The offence was committed while Rahul, a taxi driver at the time, was taking a woman home from Civic about 2.30am on a Sunday in November 2020.

He repeatedly touched the passenger in inappropriate ways while driving, ignoring her consistent objections.

The victim quickly reported the incident to police, who discovered the internal camera in Rahul's taxi had captured the offence.

Rahul, whose sentencing was characterised by his unrelenting failures to arrive on time, turned up four hours late for the breach proceedings on Thursday.

Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker told Rahul he had breached the good behaviour order attached to the suspended portion of his prison sentence by, in part, missing appointments with ACT Corrective Services.

"When you did go, you were aggressive towards staff and made concerning comments about women," Ms Walker told the offender, who now works in retail.

Ms Walker said this essentially left her with two options.

One was to send Rahul back to the Alexander Maconochie Centre to serve the outstanding two months.

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The other was to re-sentence him by effectively starting his 18-month good behaviour order again, noting a psychologist was still willing to work with him.

Prosecutor Colin Balog suggested the latter approach, which might address Rahul's problematic attitude towards women, was likely to achieve the best long-term result.

Mr Balog told the court sending Rahul back behind bars for another "short, sharp stint" would protect the community from him, but only for two months.

In circumstances where Rahul had already served that length of time behind bars, with "little or no effect" on his attitude, Mr Balog suggested the remaining two months of jail time could be left hanging over the offender's head.

That way, Mr Balog said, it could serve as "a motivator" to encourage him to change his attitudes.

Ms Walker ultimately opted for this "very fair" approach, though it took her a while to explain that to Rahul because he kept speaking over the top of her.

Apparently under the impression he was going back to prison, a self-represented Rahul pleaded to be given "one chance to prove myself".

When he eventually fell silent, Ms Walker told him the term of his new good behaviour order included a requirement to follow the directions of ACT Corrective Services.

"You can't turn up late and you can't be aggressive to people," the magistrate told Rahul.

"You must accept the help that is being offered to you."

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