Rapist taxi driver's DBS check not assessed by council

There is "no evidence" a council checked a criminal's past before it issued him with a taxi driver licence and later appointed him to a ceremonial role, its leader has said.

Diwan Khan, who was jailed for the rape of a 15-year-old girl in April, held a licence issued by Bracknell Forest Council between January 2021 and January 2024.

His mother Naheed Ejaz, the council's mayor between May 2023 and May 2024, was jailed alongside Khan for perverting the course of justice. Ejaz chose Khan to be her consort and they attended events on the council's behalf.

By then Khan had a considerable criminal past, including being jailed for two years for possessing cocaine with intent to supply in 2013.

Council leader Helen Purnell said she was "disappointed and saddened" the authority did not assess Khan's DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check before his taxi licence was issued.

"If it had been checked then it is likely he would not have been given a licence," Purnell added.

She said there was "no official requirement for councillors or consorts" to be DBS checked when Khan became the mayor's consort.

But a change to do so was introduced in October 2024 "and should help provide a safeguard for all serving and future councillors and consorts", she added.

Purnell said the council has signed up to a safety charter for women and girls, "which pledges to make public spaces safer by encouraging organisations and businesses to actively prevent harm and respond effectively to violence and abuse".

Khan, who was jailed for 12 years, plied his victim with ecstasy and vodka before filming himself raping her on his mobile phone as she lay unconscious in his car in north-east Hampshire in 2024.

Prosecutors said Ejaz and Khan spoke in Urdu when police officers turned up at their Bracknell home in September 2024 so they could secretly discuss what to do with his phone.

Judge Rufus Taylor told Winchester Crown Court that Ejaz did not know at the time what the phone contained.

But he said that by taking it there was a "real risk" Khan "might have avoided prosecution of the rape of an unconscious child".

Ejaz was jailed for three years.