Taxi driver charged with sexual assault (update)
Posted Sep 20, 2019 02:37:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Another Halifax taxi driver has been charged with sexual assault.
Halifax Regional Police say the report came in at around 3:20 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 14.
They allege a male cab driver took a female to a Halifax residence, then sexually assaulted her in the vehicle.
The suspect was arrested at police headquarters Wednesday.
Lesianu Zewdiewas Hweld, 44, of Halifax was charged and released.
He's scheduled to appear in Halifax Provincial Court at a later date.
“In consideration of the victim's privacy and well-being, we are not releasing any further details,” said HRP in a news release.
Hweld's taxi licence had been suspended but it was recently reinstated by Halifax Regional Council's Appeals Standing Committee.
Councillor Lisa Blackburn is on the committee and says Hweld had been caught driving with a suspended provincial driver's licence.
“It was a somewhat convoluted serious of circumstances, but to me it just showed a pattern of behaviour that he was just not willing to accept responsibility for his actions,” she explained. “I saw that as a problem, and that's why I voted no.”
However, she was the only one.
She said, despite that particular issue having nothing to do with what he is now accused of, it just goes to show the potential implications of the decisions made at the appeals committee
Blackburn said Hweld was also a declared candidate for the vacant council seat in District 15.
“He didn't put in his paperwork, so he was never made an official candidate.”
Because of the charges, Hweld's taxi licence is once again suspended.
“Whether or not he decides to appeal it and come back before the committee, I don't know, but I certainly hope he doesn't because he's not going to get the time of day from me,” Blackburn said.
