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

A Glasgow woman’s harrowing experience of being kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a man posing as a taxi driver has been shared. The incident, which took place on 7 August 2022, involved the victim, referred to as Sophie in the article, being taken to her home in the Dennistoun area. However, the driver, Barzan Nawshowani, soon led her into a nearby barber shop, where he committed the crime.

Nawshowani initially received a six-year sentence but faced a Crown appeal that extended his term to eight years with an additional three years of supervision. Sophie, however, believes the punishment should have been harsher, advocating for a minimum of 15 to 16 years. Scotland recently introduced updated guidelines for rape sentencing, aiming to reflect the severity of such cases more accurately.

“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.”

The Abduction and Rape

Sophie’s friend had reported the “taxi” driver after a night out in Glasgow. The friend was first taken home, which Sophie found suspicious since her residence was further away. When the car stopped short of the expected location, her instincts began to alert her. “My alarms were starting to go off that something’s not quite right here,” she recalled. “I’d had a few drinks and was slightly impaired. I thought ‘just get home’.”

The driver claimed to work at the KS Turkish Barbers, unlocking the shop’s shutters as they arrived. Sophie sensed danger and her body reacted with 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.”

“Mainly in my head was ‘just do as you are told’,” Sophie added. “My immediate thought was that he might kill me.” She noticed a back door, hoping for an escape, but it was not an option. “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.”

Aftermath and Emotional Impact

After the attack, Sophie managed to escape, collapsing onto the street. “When I got in, I couldn’t lift myself up off the floor. I couldn’t control anything,” she described. “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.”

Her friend had flagged the “taxi” after the incident, prompting a swift police response. Within days, Nawshowani was arrested. Sophie hesitated to inform her parents, fearing their reaction. “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 she finally told her mother, the response was brief. “She was trying not to cry for me. Then she said we want you to come home. We are going to work through this,” Sophie recalled. “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 also shared the emotional toll on her family. “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.”

Testimony and Trial Experience

During the trial, Sophie provided her evidence via video link, describing the event as “horrific.” She admitted to feeling overwhelmed on the day of her testimony. “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 noted. She met with the prosecutor beforehand, who reassured her that the questioning wasn’t personal. “He told me his cross examination wasn’t personal but he was just doing his job,” she said. This comfort faded when she was asked if the incident was “just a night out gone wrong.”