Satbir Arora picked up the girl on February 20, dressed in her school uniform, after she booked his taxi to go from her home in Oxfordshire to Gloucester train station.
LONDON – A Sikh taxi driver has been hailed as a hero for saving a 13-year-old school girl from a planned abduction by a paedophile armed with knives, tape and sleeping pills, a media report said.
Satbir Arora picked up the girl on February 20, dressed in her school uniform, after she booked his taxi to go from her home in Oxfordshire to Gloucester train station, metro.co.uk reported.
But waiting for the underage girl was 24-year-old Sam Hewings, who planned to abduct her after she was dropped off. He had already discussed kidnapping, sedating and raping a victim on online forums, the report said.
When no one arrived to meet the girl, the taxi driver asked her for more information but when pressed, she declined to say more, it said.
Arora tried to ascertain whether the girl’s parents knew where she was. He then called his wife, with whom he runs the taxi service, and discussed his concerns with her, before passing the phone to the girl. The girl eventually confided in Arora that her parents did not know where she was, it said.
He then called the police, while also alerting a nearby police officer.
Arora has now been given an award for his work protecting the girl on February 20 this year, saving her from an ‘unthinkable ordeal’, the report added.
