A Calgary taxi driver has been convicted of sexual assaulting an intoxicated woman he was driving home from a Christmas party.

Zakaria Hussein Allale was charged after the 24-year-old woman filed a complaint with police in December 2014.

Provincial court Judge Karim Jivraj said in his ruling released Thursday there was evidence Allale disconnected the security camera in the cab to hide the assault.

A video shows the driver taking the woman's hand and caressing her arm before the camera stops recording.

Silence does not equal consent

Jivraj says the fact that the woman did not say or do anything to tell the driver that she did not wish to engage in sexual behaviour is no defence.

He says it is a well-established principle of law that silence does not equal consent.

The judge was critical of police, noting a detective did not do a follow-up visit to the woman's home for 29 days.

Jivraj also says it took almost two years for the case to come to trial.

The judge says there was insufficient evidence to rule on whether Allale also sexually assaulted the woman in her garage shortly after getting out of the cab.