By Canadian Press

Violation of trust: Crown wants prison time for Newfoundland cabbie sex assaults

Mar 28, 2018 | 1:15 PM

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — A Newfoundland cab driver convicted of sexually assaulting two female passengers should serve two to three years in prison, a Crown prosecutor argued Wednesday.

Dana Sullivan said Lulzim Jakupaj violated a position of trust and should also be registered as a sex offender for life.

“All sexual assaults are violent,” she said in provincial Supreme Court in St. John’s.

“If we cannot trust taxi drivers in our community then who can we trust?”

Taxi passengers are vulnerable — especially when they get in a cab at night or after they’ve had a few drinks, Sullivan told Justice Rosalie McGrath during sentencing arguments.  

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Jakupaj was convicted in January for separate incidents in March 2016 involving two young women who had been drinking in St. John’s when they got in his cab.

He was convicted of forcibly kissing both women, and groping the second victim as he put his arm across her throat and tried to pull her pants down.

Sullivan noted that Jakupaj is already serving what’s left of a four-year sentence for a home invasion break-and-enter in May 2016, two months after the sexual assaults. In that incident, he had followed another female passenger into a home where she was staying.

Defence lawyer Amanda Summers said her client, now 34, should serve six to 20 months for the sexual assaults. Jakupaj had a “horrible” upbringing during the war in Kosovo where he served as a child soldier for three years before emigrating to Canada in 2007.

Jakupaj sat with his head bowed before proceedings began but stood to speak to the court when given the chance.

“I truly feel sorry for those girls, whatever they’ve gone through,” he said. After 17 months at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary in St. John’s, Jakupaj said he is not being offered programs because he’s considered a low-risk offender.

Still, he said he has been working hard at various jobs inside.

“This is my first time in jail and it will be the last, I promise,” he told the judge. “I’ve learned my lessons.”

McGrath reserved her decision until April 25.

The Canadian Press