Halifax taxi driver found not guilty of sexually assaulting female passenger
HALIFAX — A Supreme Court judge has acquitted a Halifax taxi driver of sexually assaulting a female passenger, saying the evidence in the case left her with reasonable doubt about the man’s guilt.
Seyed Mirsaeid-Ghazi let out a sigh of relief and pressed his hands against his face as Justice Ann Smith delivered her decision Thursday in Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
The Crown had alleged Mirsaeid-Ghazi, who is in his mid-40s, rubbed the young woman’s thigh and slid his hand down the top of her dress and touched her bare breast as she sat in the front seat of his cab, after picking her up in central Halifax in October 2015.
But defence lawyer Luke Craggs disputed the allegations during the trial, saying the woman attached herself to the driver when she got in the cab because she was cold, prompting him to push her off.