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NZ radio host Jay-Jay Harvey assaulted by taxi driver

The radio host opened up on Facebook asking what she should do about the assault.

Jay-Jay Harvey says she was assaulted on Saturday night by an Auckland taxi driver after leaving a bar in Ponsonby.

The author and radio star who hosts The Edge morning weekday shows with former husband Dominic Harvey and Clint Randell, explains the “uncomfortable experience” in a post on her Facebook page.

“After leaving a bar in Ponsonby, I tried to get into a cab from a company I knew, but the driver wouldn’t take me because my ride was only 3 or 4 km long and he had been waiting awhile, so he told me to get into the one behind him,” she writes.

“The driver was very forward with his conversation with me and asked a lot of personal questions which I tried to answer without giving too much away. He kept asking me if he could touch my breasts and kept holding my hand which I promptly let go of each time. He was asking if I would be his girlfriend and I was feeling uncomfortable and nervous.”

Jay-Jay says she felt uncomfortable. “I was laughing to make him assume I thought he was joking but he kept grabbing my hand and asking about my breasts.”

“He told me he just wanted to touch them. We pulled up outside my apartment block and he told me he would let me off my $17 fare if I would hook up with him and then he reached over and started fondling my boobs!” she alleges.

Harvey says she pushed the driver’s hand away and persisted to give him her eftpos card which, he eventually accepted.

The driver would not take Jay-Jay’s “no” as an answer, and she claims that he then followed her out of the car.

“’I’m coming in with you,’ he said to me. ‘No you’re not,’ I told him back and I walked as quickly as I could.”

“Swipe card in hand, I opened the sliding doors to my block with him a few metres behind me, then bolted up the stairs which he could not have accessed without a swipe card. I got inside safely and watched out the window as he stood in the middle of the street looking up trying to figure out which flat I was in. Then he got back into his cab and drove off.”

“What a creep. Did he drive taxis for the purpose of preying on drunk girls?” she said.

“I was shaking a bit and worried about what could have happened.”

“I was legit sh*tting myself that he was going to force himself upon me.”

Jay-Jay then ended the post asking her following if she should do anything about the assault.

If you or someone you know needs to talk to a professional about sexual assault, contact Rape Prevention Education.

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