{"id":831565,"date":"2026-07-28T14:48:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T14:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/831565\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T14:48:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T14:48:28","slug":"rideshare-driver-charged-with-sexual-assault-more-victims-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/831565\/","title":{"rendered":"Rideshare driver charged with sexual assault, more victims possible"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Ottawa Police Service announced Tuesday that they have arrested and charged an Ottawa rideshare driver with a count of sexual assault.<\/p>\n<p>OPS says in their release that the Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit (SACA) was responsible for the investigation that commenced back on July 25, 2026.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Ottawa Police Service has charged a 36-year-old Ottawa man with sexual assault.<\/p>\n<p>Members of the OPS Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit (SACA) believe there may be additional victims, as the accused worked as a rideshare driver for Uber and Lyft in and around the Ottawa area.\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wUSIh5XGWH\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/wUSIh5XGWH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ottawa Police (@OttawaPolice) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/OttawaPolice\/status\/2082106625318396097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">July 28, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The man charged is 36-year-old Mohamed Laarous, a rideshare driver for both Uber and Lyft. SACA believes there may be other victims from in and around the Ottawa area throughout Laarous\u2019 tenure driving for both apps.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone with information is asked to call the Ottawa Police Service Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit at 613-236-1222, extension 5944. Tips may also be sent electronically to SACA@ottawapolice.ca.<\/p>\n<p>Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling Crime Stoppers toll-free at 1-800-222-8477(TIPS).<\/p>\n<p>\t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n<p>Add CityNews Ottawa as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=ottawa.citynews.ca\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"add-trusted-source-badge\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778352312_74_google-trusted-badge.png\" alt=\"Add as a preferred source on Google\" width=\"198\" height=\"63\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ottawa Police Service announced Tuesday that they have arrested and charged an Ottawa rideshare driver with a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-831565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}