Charlottetown taxi driver pleads guilty to sexual assault

A former Charlottetown taxi driver has pleaded guilty to sexual assaulting a female passenger this summer.

Paramveer Singh Bhurjee admitted in P.E.I. Provincial Court on Monday to grabbing the breast of a woman who was riding in the front seat of his cab late one night in August.

• RCMP arrest taxi driver accused of groping woman

Upon hearing the man's guilty plea, both the judge and Crown prosecutor urged the 31-year man to get legal counsel.

Since his arrest last week, he's been refusing to see a lawyer.

Driver requests woman's help navigating

According to facts read in court, the woman had been out with her cousindrinking the night of the assault.

She shared the taxi ride with a couple of men who got out first. She also paid the men's fare, and gave the driver $60 cash.

After the men were gone, the taxi driver told the woman to get in the front seat, saying he needed her help to navigate to her destination across the Hillsborough Bridge.

Grabbed woman's breast

He repeatedly suggested they pull off the road somewhere to have sex, court heard.

About half-way across the bridge, he reached over and forcefully grabbed the woman's breast.

She called 911 and ordered the taxi driver to pull off at a gas station where, coincidentally, two RCMP officers were filling up.

A few days later he was charged and his taxi driver's licence was suspended.

Bhurjee will be back in court Dec. 7 for sentencing.

• MORE P.E.I. NEWS | 'I was sick': Fire destroys woman's 1800s home
• MORE P.E.I. NEWS | Beyond the bandage: First-aid course offered for mental illness