Woman's ordeal after abduction and rape by fake taxi driver

A woman who was abducted and raped by a man pretending to be a taxi driver has spoken about her terrifying ordeal.

On 7 August 2022, the woman - who is anonymous but we are calling Sophie - thought she was in a taxi taking her to her home in Glasgow's Dennistoun area.

But after dropping off her friend, the driver, Barzan Nawshowani, took her into a barber shop where he worked, and raped her.

He was initially jailed for six years, but following a Crown appeal this was increased to eight years with an extra three years of supervision.

However, Sophie feels that as the crime was so serious he should have been given 15-16 years.

New guidelines for the sentencing of rape offences came into effect in Scotland last month - with higher jail terms for cases like this.

"Sometimes you get that feeling of just lock him up and throw away the key," Sophie said.

"Despite the appeal, the charges were abduction and rape. I think those two together, I think it needed to be a lot longer, 15, 16 years."

Sophie's friend had flagged the "taxi" after a night out in Glasgow.

"He took her home first - which we thought was odd because she lived a bit further away – then I was taken to Dennistoun," Sophie said.

"But the car pulled up quite a bit away from where I was supposed to be.

"My alarms were starting to go off that something's not quite right here. But I'd had a few drinks and was slightly impaired. I thought just get home."

She said the driver said he worked at the nearby barber shop, KS Turkish Barbers, and unlocked and opened the shutters.

Sophie felt something bad was going to happen and her body froze in fear.

"I was going through my head 'how do I get out of this?' but my body couldn't move," she said.

"He initially opened the door and from there it was very fast. The next thing I remember is being in the middle of that barber shop with the door locked and the shutters down and it was such a quick turnaround.

"Mainly in my head was 'just do as you are told'. My immediate thought was that he might kill me."

Sophie saw a back door and thought there might be a back exit but found this was not the case.

"He then approached me and it became quite aggressive and violent," she said. "I just froze again.

"He was a lot taller than me, older than me, stronger than me. There was not anything that anyone in that circumstance could do differently."

Nawshowani then raped her.

"I was saying 'no, stop' and crying my eyes out. It was so intense and scary. I don't think I have been more terrified in all my life.

"When it was all over he went out first, unlocked the door, shutters came up and I ran out and collapsed onto the street."

Sophie rang her friend and ran home.

"When I got in, I couldn't lift myself up off the floor. I couldn't control anything," she said.

"I wanted to stay there and have the ground swallow me. I was more terrified I would be blamed. There was a shame even from that point.

"It was something you should never have but that was the immediate thing for me. My friend said 'no, I'm going to report this'."

Within a couple of days police had arrested Nawshowani.

Sophie was concerned about how the rape would affect her family so didn't tell them straight away.

"I waited about a week before I told my parents," she said. "It was that feeling of shame, I was so worried how other people would take it and their reactions rather than my own.

"I was on autopilot – everything was going on around me but I wasn't aware of it.

"When I told my mum, it was silence for a minute. She was trying not to cry for me. Then she said we want you to come home. We are going to work through this.

"I wanted to put it away and ignore it and I knew the second I saw their faces it would hit me - and it did. Like a truck."

She added: "It was hard seeing my dad so upset and processing it all – it was one of the hardest things of the whole experience seeing them upset."

During the trial, Sophie gave her evidence via video link.

She described the experience as "horrific".

"When it came to the day of giving evidence, I just crumbled," she said. "It was panic attack after panic attack.

"I felt like I was under scrutiny, especially with the cross-examination."

Sophie met the prosecutor before the trial and said "thankfully he was very nice". He told her his cross examination wasn't personal but he was just doing his job.

This initially brought her some comfort until it came to the cross examination when she was asked if it was "just a night out gone wrong".

"I just really put my walls up and was like, 'no'," she said. "I think it's the last thing that you're prepared for almost because you're prepared to relive it all and you know it's going to happen and it's emotional, but that defence questioning, it brings out that anger in you."

When Nawshowani was first sentenced Sophie initially felt vindicated.

"It's validating because it's like, 'okay, yeah, I am right'," she said. "This did happen and it is taken seriously.

"But then shortly after I was like 'that is not a lot'."

The sentence was increased to eight years after a Crown appeal.

Sophie said she was happy about this but said it wasn't enough time for her to heal before Nawshowani is released.

She said she has to constantly remind herself that she shouldn't feel any shame.

"The shame shouldn't be with me and the control shouldn't be with him," she said.

"The shame should be with him and the control with me."