Unlicensed cab driver granted bail in sex assault

A St. Catharines man charged with sexually assaulting a female cab customer has been granted bail.

Mahmoud Al Arag, 39, appeared in the prisoner’s box in a courtroom at the Robert S.K. Welch Courthouse Tuesday wearing a brown leather jacket. He glanced and nodded at his wife and in-laws seated in the front row of the courtroom.

Niagara Regional Police said a woman was sexually assaulted while taking an unlicensed cab home from downtown St. Catharines on April 15.

The cab driver picked up a woman in the St. Paul and Ontario streets area at about 12:45 a.m. The driver took the woman to a parking lot in the area of Bunting Road and Welland Avenue where she was sexually assaulted.

With his wife acting as his surety, Al Arag was released with the condition he does not contact the victim or three other potential witnesses.

He also must stay at the family apartment in downtown St. Catharines between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless there is a medical emergency or his surety accompanies him.

Al Arag must also avoid the street on which the victim lives in another part of the city.

Al Arag’s mother-in-law buried her head in her hands as Crown attorney Graeme Leach read graphic details of what police allege happened into the court record for the justice.

Duty counsel represented Al Arag at the hearing, which was delayed for a day in order to provide Al Arag with an Arabic interpreter.

There are two publication bans imposed.

The first ban protects the details of what Leach alleged to have happened and is standard procedure at bail hearings.

The second ban is imposed automatically and bars the publication of any information that could identify a complainant or witness in a sexual offence proceeding. It never expires and is in place to protect victims who come forward — and encourage others to do the same.