by LAUREN CODLING
A CAB DRIVER who saved a teenage girl from an armed sex offender has said his five-year jail sentence is “not good enough”.
Satbir Arora, 39, helped to alert police when he suspected that his 13-year-old passenger was being groomed by a paedophile.
The man whom the teenager was planning to meet was Sam Hewings, 24. When police arrested him in his house, they found a bag containing knives, duct tape and Co-codamol tablets.
Hewings was jailed for five years last November for attempted abduction, and the distribution and making of indecent images.
“[Hewing’s sentence] is not good enough – he came equipped and he was going to kill her,” Arora said last month. “If she had met him, what would have happened to her? What would he have done to her?”
Arora initially received an online booking request to his taxi service last February from a 13-year-old passenger in Oxfordshire.
“I picked her up at a bus stop, and I saw a woman with a pram nearby. I assumed this woman knew the girl,” Arora said.
“I asked if she would be paying for cab fare and she said the person at the other end would be and passed me his number.”
The taxi driver said he had no reason to believe she was in any kind of danger at that point. When he asked where she was going, the girl replied she was going to a surprise party for a friend.
“I’m not sure if she made up a story or if the person who groomed her had told her what to say,” Arora recalled. “She seemed excited.”
However, it was only when they arrived at their destination, Gloucester train station, that Arora began to suspect something was wrong. No one was there to pick the girl up and she admitted her parents did not know her whereabouts.
“When she said her mum didn’t know – that was definitely something that alerted me,” Arora, who had previously received safeguarding training in 2016 from his local council, said. “It helped me conclude what was going on.”
Arora called his wife, who spoke to the girl over the phone and established that her parents were unaware of her plans, and the couple then alerted the police.
It was only in November when the case went to trial that they discovered Hewings’ plans.
“We only found out when the reports came out about [Hewings] having the knives and drugs,” Arora said. “I was supposed to give evidence, but he eventually pled guilty. It was only when it got to court that we found out the details.”
Online chat logs given as evidence at Gloucester crown court revealed Hewings had discussed kidnapping, sedating and raping a victim.
After the case concluded, Arora was presented with a certificate for outstanding achievement in safeguarding by councillor Kieron Mallon, Cherwell district council’s lead member for public protection.
Cllr Kieran Mallon said this “shocking” case reinforces the importance of the safeguarding training provided to taxi drivers.
“I can’t praise Mr Arora enough for his caring attitude and for recognising that his passenger was in grave danger,” Mallon said.
“He had the presence of mind to record his calls with the would-be kidnapper, providing crucial evidence to the prosecution service.
“He has clearly put his safeguarding training into action and I hope he displays his certificate in pride of place in his vehicle.”
When asked if the incident had changed his outlook on his job, Arora said he knows that not every person has bad intentions.
“It could be one person out of every thousand, so you can’t think everyone is a bad person,” he said. “I think it is god’s grace that this girl was saved.
“I have a 13-year-old daughter of my own and it is an extremely frightening thought.
“I would do the same all over again.”
Damian Talbot