Rape-accused taxi driver maintains Leeds woman consented and he 'didn't think she was drunk'
A taxi driver accused of raping a woman he approached in the street claims she was not drunk and incapable of consenting to sex.
Daniel Hayelom was giving evidence at his own trial at Leeds Crown Court this week.
The 36-year-old denies rape, two counts of sexual assault and assault by penetration, after he approached the woman in Beeston in the early hours of October 21, 2023.
She had been to a house party and CCTV footage played to the jury showed her walking home along Dewsbury Road at around 6.15am.
Hayelom’s taxi was seen to drive past her several times and loiter, before he eventually got out and approached her.
He hugged and kissed her, before walking with her for a short distance and then heading into an alleyway, where it is claimed he raped her.
The Crown suggests she was “clearly intoxicated”, unable to give consent and that Hayelom was “predatory”.
Taking to the witness box, dad-of-two Hayelom, of Clyde Approach, New Wortley, said he had been working and finished his shift that night before heading to two shisha bars where he played cards into the early hours.
Then while driving through Beeston, he maintains he thought he recognised the woman as someone from his gym, and that was the reason for driving past her several times.
Prosecutor Michael Smith suggested that Hayelom was “scoping out just how vulnerable this woman was before deciding whether or not to approach her”, which Hayelom denied and said he simply wanted to make sure it was the woman he knew.
He acknowledged he did not know her when he finally got out of the car and walked to greet her. Bizarrely, he put his arms out and hugged her, then grabbed her bottom with both hands.
Mr Smith asked if he regularly sexually touched women “within three seconds of meeting them”, to which Hayelom claimed he only did this because she put her arms around him.
He also denied approaching women regularly in the street and soliciting them for sex.
When asked about her state, Hayelom told the jury he believed she had been drinking, but was not drunk, despite footage showing her “unable to walk in a straight line”, the Crown say.
The CCTV picked up brief words exchanged between the two in which Hayelom told her “You are so sexy....give me a kiss”.
When the woman then tells him that she was going home, he can be heard saying: “I need more”.
Hayelom, who is seen walking with her for a short distance, claims the woman asked if he had a condom when they got into the alleyway off Tunstall Road, next to Aldi and Poundland.
He claimed he told her did not, and said she then asked if he was “clean”, before having sex for around “30 or 40 seconds”.
Asked by Mr Smith if it was unusual to find women in the street who agree to have sex just minutes after meeting - with Hayelom replying that it was “not usual”, but “it happens”.