Taxi driver rapist ordered by court to pay his victim £425K in damages
Taxi driver rapist, 52, convicted in Rotherham grooming scandal is ordered to pay victim more than £425,000 in damages after sexually abusing her when she was 14
- Taxi driver Asghar Bostan, 52, was jailed for nine years in 2018 for sex offences
- Victim, ‘Liz’, has brought the first successful civil action of its kind against him
A rapist convicted in the Rotherham grooming scandal has been ordered by the High Court to pay his victim more than £425,000 in damages.
Taxi driver Asghar Bostan, 52, was jailed for nine years in 2018 after being convicted of two offences against a girl under 16 in Rotherham between 2000 and 2002.
Now the victim – known as ‘Liz’ – has brought what is said to be the first successful civil action of its kind against Bostan, who was released from prison last year.
She started civil proceedings against Bostan three years ago ‘to at last get real justice’ and has now received damages of £425,934.09 in a judgment last week.
Taxi driver Asghar Bostan, 52, was jailed for nine years for two offences against a girl under 16
Liz told BBC News: ‘I wanted to give something back not only to myself, but to other survivors and do something not only for Rotherham but for all the UK.
‘I am really, really pleased for the outcome and really, really pleased this might open the floodgates for other survivors. It will never heal the past, we will always walk in these shoes, but it is about closing a chapter.’
She added that she was ‘proud’ to have brought the case against Bostan – who was in jail at HMP Leicester – but the scale of the damages had not ‘sunk in’ yet.
Bostan failed to engage with the civil court proceedings while still in jail, and the order is likely to bankrupt him, reported The Times. It has been claimed she is likely to receive around £100,000.
The victim previously told the National Crime Agency that she was given drugs and alcohol, coerced to a flat and raped on two occasions when she was 14 or 15.
Baroness Cox, Secretary of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Honour Based Abuse, said: ‘I have met with many grooming gang survivors over the years and I am delighted that Liz has been awarded this financial justice. Her great legal victory should bring hope to many other survivors.’
Bostan was charged in May 2017 as part of Operation Stovewood – the National Crime Agency’s investigation into non-familial child sexual exploitation and abuse between 1997 and 2013.
Bostan was jailed for nine years in 2018 and was being held at HMP Leicester (file picture)
The victim came forward to South Yorkshire Police in 2014 to report the abuse and the case was referred to the NCA’s team.
Bostan was then jailed at Sheffield Crown Court in February 2018.
Liz was supported in her legal case by former Ukip leader Lord Rannoch and former Conservative peer Lord Vinson who both raised money to help her.
She was also backed by Hearts of Oak, a ‘free speech campaign group’ launched in 2020 by a team including English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson.
Peter Mcilvenna, director of Hearts Of Oak, said: ‘Liz has been admirably courageous to see the legal process through to this victory.
‘We would like her ground-breaking civil action to be just the start of a wider campaign to get compensation for more victims and to punish more grooming gang rapists where it hurts.’
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