Brooklyn livery cab driver allegedly raped 12-year-old passenger midway through ride before dropping her home
A cab driver in Brooklyn allegedly raped a 12-year-old passenger before driving her home, authorities said Tuesday. Police sources told the New York Daily News that the preteen victim was visiting her grandmother's house located near the corner of Myrtle and Carlton Avenue to collect a new bicycle at around 6 pm Monday. According to the paper, the victim's mother had called a livery cab service on Vanderbilt Avenue to drive her daughter home.
32-year-old Rafael Martinez, however, had other plans. Authorities revealed how the cabbie pulled over, parked the vehicle, jumped into the back seat, and allegedly raped her. After the sexual assault, Martinez dropped his victim and her bicycle off at her residence, located near Ralph Avenue and Fulton Street. Her parents took her Woodhull Hospital that night, where police arrived to investigate.
Martinez was finally arrested on Tuesday. Authorities noted how the vehicle's GPS has recorded where the suspect had stopped to allegedly rape the child. “We have enough evidence to corroborate her story. There’s both physical and electronic evidence,” one police source told the Daily News. “You know what surprised me the most? He knew we were coming, and he waited. He stayed instead of getting on the next plane out.”
As Martinez was led out of NYPD’s Brooklyn Special Victims Unit office on Nevins St. in Boerum Hill, he said nothing to a group of reporters waiting outside. According to Daily News, he's charged with rape, criminal sex act, sexual abuse, endangering the welfare of a child, menacing and assault.
In July, we reported how a cab driver who tried to rape a nine-year-old girl was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Jason Bursk was caught in CCTV footage fastening his trousers after leaving the house of the victim. The 51-year-old taxi driver from Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, was sentenced for breaking into a number of properties late at night and sexually attacking women and children.
Bursk’s most serious crime included the November 15, 2019, attack on the nine-year-old, who was asleep with her younger sister, when he broke into her house and attempted to rape her. He also bit her and called her a “brat” as she resisted. However, the girl’s sister woke up and bravely intervened that led Bursk to flee the house after shoving both children. He was captured on CCTV that showed him escaping from the scene, holding his trousers up.
According to reports, Bursk’s criminal activities dated from November 2018 to November 2019. During that period, he stalked multiple residences in the district of Radcliffe. Bursk peered through windows and doors of the houses to look for women and children. In a drunken state, he would check the properties and try to open their front or back doors until he found one that could be opened.
Two other children and a woman in her 70s are also said to be victims of Bursk, who, as per police, tried to trespass numerous properties “with the intention of committing sexual acts." The taxi driver admitted two counts of sexual assault of a child under 13; one count of attempted rape of a child under 13; one count of sexual assault of a woman in her 70s; three counts of attempting to trespass with intent to commit a sexual offense; and four counts of trespass with intent to commit a sexual offense at Minshull Street Crown Court.