Lyft driver accused of sexually assaulting teen

A terrified teenager surreptitiously texted her mom for help as a Lyft ridesharing driver allegedly turned off his tracking system, groped her and sped down the highway refusing to take her home.

“I’m scared,” the 18-year-old from Hamilton texted to her mom, who immediately phoned 911.

With the involvement of four police services, the use of cellphone “pinging,” the wits of the teen and the sharp eye of a police officer, the Lyft car was stopped and the driver handcuffed.

Halton Regional Police have charged Majid Kayali, 63, of Oakville with sexual assault.

An emailed statement from Lyft communications officer Scott Coriell says: “We have zero tolerance for the behaviour described here. As soon as we were made aware of these allegations, we immediately deactivated the driver. Our concern is with the passenger, and we have been in touch to offer our assistance. We have also been in contact with law enforcement and stand ready to assist in any way we can.”

The ordeal began just before noon on May 6 when the teen — whose identity is protected by a publication ban — used an app to request a Lyft to pick her and her boyfriend up at his home in Burlington. She uses Lyft, she says, because it is cheaper than Uber. The Lyft app informed her she would be picked up by a driver named “Majid” and it supplied her with a photo of him.

She said the driver, an “older” man matching the photo on the app, arrived in a white Honda Civic and the two got in. The teen sat in the passenger seat, her boyfriend in back. He was dropped off at Burlington Mall where he works. The driver was then supposed to continue to the teen’s home in Hamilton. The ride up to that point was uneventful. The driver “didn’t really talk too much at first,” the teen says. Things changed “the minute” her boyfriend left.

The driver asked the teen about a mark she had on her hand. She explained she had tried to break up a scrap between her pets and was bitten. The driver grabbed her hand and kissed it, she says.

“I was creeped out,” she says, but was afraid of insulting the driver. “He was definitely from somewhere else and maybe that’s something they do there.”

She sent her boyfriend a text, saying the Lyft driver was creepy and joking that she might not make it out alive. Things quickly got worse, she said.

“You’re a beautiful young girl. I like young people,” the driver said, according to the teen.

By now, the car was on the highway and the teen realized it wasn’t heading to her house but rather toward Niagara Falls. Then she says the driver grabbed her thigh.

“I asked him to stop,” she says. “I was very anxious.”

“He asked if he could hold my hand. I said my boyfriend wouldn’t like that.”

The teen says she watched as the Lyft driver reached over to his cellphone and “ended” the ride, meaning he made it appear as though he had dropped his fare off on the QEW.

“I was very lost as to why he would do that. I was afraid I was going to be raped.”

That’s when she secretly began texting her mom.

The teen’s phone was almost out of battery power. She saw they were now passing the “big ship” that can be seen from the highway at Jordan’s Harbour, near St. Catharines. She says she begged the driver to take her home.

Meanwhile, her mother was on the phone with the Hamilton Police Service. Soon, the Halton Regional Police, the Burlington OPP and the Niagara Regional Police were all involved as well. The teen later learned police were pinging her cellphone to try to pinpoint her location.

“I was trying to keep my composure. I was scared he was going to take my phone.”

The teen had the presence of mind to take photos of the driver’s hand on her leg.

The driver told her he wanted to take her to Niagara. She says he then turned the car around and told her he was taking her to Toronto instead.

He reached over, took the sweater she was holding in her lap and put it in the back seat. Then she says he touched her crotch and fondled her breast.

“I was shaking and trying not to cry,” she says.

At that point, she saw a police officer ahead, standing at the side of the highway. His head was swivelling, as though he was scanning the traffic, looking for something.

“I rolled my window down and put my arm out,” she says. “We made eye contact for a split second and I nodded.”

A moment later, a cruiser pulled the Lyft car over. Then a bunch of cruisers arrived.

The Lyft driver was told to get out and was put in handcuffs. The teen was taken to the OPP station where she gave a statement. Her mom raced there to be with her.

The teen says she tried to talk to Lyft about the sexual assault, but the company only offered to refund her the $11 she was charged.

“I don’t think they wanted me to speak out,” she says. She contacted the Hamilton Spectator because she wanted other potential victims to be warned.

Lyft opened its Canadian office a year ago and began offering rides in Toronto and Halton in December.

Lyft applied for a licence in Hamilton to allow for more than 100 drivers here.

Kayali is to appear in Milton court on May 30.

The teen has been traumatized by her experience.

“It made me feel worthless,” she says. “It made me feel disgusting. I never felt that scared in my life. That scared for my life.”