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Posted on the 20th June 2025 in PHTM News
FAKE UBER DRIVER CONVICTED AGAIN FOR SEX ASSAULTS ON VULNERABLE WOMEN
A man who posed as an "unofficial Uber" driver to target "vulnerable and intoxicated" women has been found guilty for a second time of sex assaults in Brighton.
Graham Head, 68, was re-convicted on Thursday 19 June, by a jury at Lewes Crown Court following an eight-hour deliberation.
Head, of Pevensey, East Sussex, was initially handed a 23-year sentence in July 2023 for the kidnap and attempted rape of a 25-year-old woman, and the assault by penetration of a 19-year-old woman.
However, his conviction was overturned in November 2024 by the Court of Appeal due to a complaint related to the original trial judge.
During the retrial, jurors heard that Head was a "sexual predator" who operated from his silver Mercedes estate, equipped with chilling contents including latex gloves, condoms, Viagra tablets, and a balaclava, found at the time of his arrest in November 2022. Business cards advertising him as a "N-Uber driver" with the slogan "Safe and Reliable – For All Occasions" were also found at his home.
Prosecutor Paul Jarvis KC described Head's modus operandi: "Basing himself in Pevenney and ostensibly working as an unofficial Uber driver or taxi driver. He was also looking for vulnerable young women who he could sexually abuse." Jarvis added, "He carried Viagra and condoms with him, either on his person or in his car, as well as latex gloves. He would use the latex gloves to minimise the risk of leaving traces of his DNA on his victims.”
The court was told that Head was "savvy enough" to keep his two mobile phones in flight mode while searching for victims to avoid network providers recording his movements.
The two attacks are said to have occurred in the early hours of August 19, 2022, in Hove Park, and November 18, 2022, outside one of the alleged victim's homes.
The 25-year-old victim, who has since died and did not give evidence at the trial, managed to remember the "L21" portion of Head's number plate, which led to his arrest.
As Mr. Jarvis stated: "He slipped up on November 19 2022 because his victim was alert enough to be able to memorise part of the licence plate for the police to be able to identify his car when they saw it."
Head had claimed he offered the 25-year-old a lift home but did not touch her and denied ever meeting his other alleged victim.
Head will be sentenced on August 22, 2025.
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