Uber driver guilty of raping intoxicated passenger will likely be deported

A Philadelphia Uber driver convicted of raping an intoxicated passenger will likely be deported to his native Egypt.

The 27-year-old driver was convicted Thursday for the rape of the intoxicated and unconscious female passenger he picked up at Valley Forge Casino Resort in February 2018, according to The Philadelphia Tribune.

(Video: CBS Philly)

Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan noted that Ahmed Elgaafary will face deportation following his sentencing at a later date.

Prosecutors said the Egyptian national sexually assaulted the woman during what should have been a 15-minute car ride to her Charlestown home which he stretched out to more than 50 minutes in order to rape the victim. He charged her for the extra length of the ride as well as an additional $150 for vomiting in the backseat of the car, according to Assistant District Attorney Vincent Robert Cocco.

“She should have been safe,” Cocco told the jury in the four-day long trial. “He knew she was vulnerable. He knew she was alone. He knew she was too drunk.”

“In the investigation, he first claimed no sex took place, then switched to a consent defense when the DNA from the rape kit came back to him,” Hogan wrote in a Facebook post.

On the witness stand, Elgaafary acknowledged that the victim was drunk when he picked her up, according to The Philadelphia Tribune. His lawyer, Melissa Berlot McCafferty, contended that the passenger seduced Elgaafary and the sex was consensual.

“She initiated the sexual encounter and then tried to get him to come into her house with her. Just because (she) doesn’t remember the sex doesn’t mean she wasn’t conscious,” McCafferty told the jury.

She also argued that the driver initially lied about what happened because he did not want his pregnant wife to know.

“He cheated on his wife,” McCafferty said. “He’s not a rapist. He’s not a criminal.”

The victim had gone to the hospital for a rape kit the next day after waking to a feeling that something had happened. She did not remember anything from the night when she left the casino around 2 a.m. but reportedly awoke the next day with bruises on her thighs, according to the newspaper.

“I had a real bad gut feeling,” she testified. “I did not feel OK. Something just didn’t feel right in my mind and my body. It just didn’t feel right.”

Elgaafary was charged in November and had reportedly continued driving for the ride share service for some time after the assault.

“What’s been reported is appalling. Our thoughts are with the rider and her family during this time,” Uber said in a statement after the charges were filed. “This driver has been permanently removed from the app.”

A jury of eight women and four men deliberated about 2½ hours this week before finding Elgaafary guilty on counts of rape of an unconscious person, sexual assault and two counts of indecent assault, one with an unconscious person, Daily Local News reported.

Elgaafary’s bail was revoked by Common Pleas Court Judge Patrick Carmody who noted that the jury had determined he was a “danger to the community.”

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