Taxi Driver Online

A PENSIONER was banned by magistrates from using a local taxi firm, after being found guilty of groping a female cab driver.

Brian George Slack, 76, of Main Street, Cadoxton, told magistrates in Barry he could not remember anything about the incident, in which it was alleged he had touched and squeezed the breast of 61-year-old June Lloyd.

He denied the charge, made under the Sexual Offences Act, that he had intentionally touched a woman, knowing that the touching was sexual.

Mrs Lloyd, who has waived her right to anonymity, told the court that he had also put his arm around her and unsuccessfully took a swing at her, after she had taken him to Main Street, after 8pm on September 15.

She signalled a Code 1 emergency to the A2B office and 20 taxi drivers arrived on the scene, but the court heard there had been no police response at the time to the office’s call. Prosecuting, Nia James told the court Mrs Lloyd had answered a request for her cab to pick up passengers from Clos yr Harbwr, but only two drunk males, one she believed to be in his 40s and one older – the accused – got in.

The men, sat in the rear, decided against stopping at a shop in Barry Road and asked to be taken to Main Street, stopping near the junction at Pontypridd Street.

Mrs Lloyd told police: “As I pulled up I half turned to ask for the fare – about £6.50. The elderly gentleman leaned over and grabbed my breast.

“I said: ‘Keep your hands to yourself’, and I immediately got out of the vehicle.”

The other male, she said, left without paying and the intoxicated Slack was unable to move from the cab for two or three minutes.

She added: “As he got out he stood up and made another grab for me, again touching my breast.

“I told him to keep his hands to himself, I wanted paying.

“He tried to put his arm around me, then he took a swing at me and being drunk, he missed.”

Two young boys and a girl, the court heard, witnessed the scene and asked if she needed help.

She said: “I felt really sick, and I didn’t work for the rest of the night. I have been a bit wary about going out now.”

Police arrested Slack 12 days after the incident.

The court heard he and three others had drunk three flagons of Frosted Jack cider in Thompson Street before calling a taxi to Clos yr Harbwr.

Slack said he thought one of the men had given the pair £10 for the fare.

“All I wanted to do was get in the house and get my head down,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how drunk I am, I’m not like that.”

Summing up, chairman of the bench David Taylor, in finding Slack guilty on February 17, said: “We find Mrs Lloyd a credible witness and consistent in her account of events.”

And, sentencing Slack on March 10, District Judge Richard Williams said: “The victim was providing a valuable service to the public and she was vulnerable in being on her own in a motor car with two men.”

Slack was given a nine-month supervised community order, ordered to pay £200 compensation to Mrs Lloyd, and was banned from contacting her or using A2B cabs for three years.

Mrs Lloyd said: “I am just glad that justice has been done.

“If people don’t come forward when something like this happens, it’s going to happen again.”

http://www.barryanddistrictnews.co.uk/n ... xi_driver/

One of my mates today had a man open his taxi door on the rank, he said to the man" jump in mate" the man said" i do not need a taxi".The driver said" then do you need directions,the man then said "no i was wondering if you would like some man on man" the driver told him to FO.My mate said the man was over sixty, i wonder if it was the same man.