HIV-positive rapist taxi driver loses appeal against conviction

ROSS GIBLIN/The Dominion Post

APPEAL REJECTED: Abdirazak Yussuf Mussa.

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An HIV-positive taxi driver who was jailed last year for raping an 18-year-old passenger has had his appeal against conviction rejected.

Somalian refugee Abdirazak Yussuf Mussa was found guilty of two counts of rape and jailed in April last year for nine years after a second trial, stemming from an incident in September 2006.

He was originally found guilty in November 2007 of the rapes and abduction with intent to sexually violate and jailed for seven years.

However, in 2008 the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction and ordered a retrial.

The court was told Mussa raped the then 18-year-old woman twice after picking her up and taking her to his house.

Sentencing judge Bruce Davidson said Mussa had violated the trust people expected when taking a taxi.

At the heart of Mussa's Supreme Court appeal was his HIV-positive status and the use of condoms during the rapes, which was allowed as evidence at the second trial.

His lawyer submitted that the jury could have had an unfair prejudice against him because of his HIV status.

In findings released today, Justices Peter Blanchard, Andrew Tipping and John McGrath said the trial judge did counsel the jury adequately about being influenced prejudicially by the fact that Mussa was a Somalian refugee and HIV-positive, and that there had been no miscarriage of justice.

- NZPA