Taxi Driver Online

Sex-starved Wigan motorist claiming to be 'Good Samaritan' jailed for molesting woman who mistook him for taxi driver




A sex-starved Wigan motorist who molested a young woman after she mistook him for a taxi driver as he prowled around a town centre at 4am was jailed for four years today.

Married Barry Smith, 58, was driving around the streets on a Saturday night looking for unsuspecting females to pick up when he was flagged down by a woman who had been drinking with friends.

The 29-year old got into the front seat of his Silver Nissan X-Trail thinking it was a private hire vehicle, but after Smith drove her home, he locked the doors, asked her to perform a sex act on him then grabbed her hand.

The woman managed to escape after screaming for help.

Smith, from Wigan, Greater Manchester, was caught two weeks later after his car was stopped by a genuine taxi driver who recognised the Nissan from a public appeal for help to find a bogus cabbie preying on girls in the area.

At the time Smith had another young woman with him inside the vehicle.

Smith later said he often drove round the streets at night as his marriage had broken down and he would drive round talking on the phone to a woman friend.

But at Liverpool Crown Court, he was found guilty of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent. He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.

Greater Manchester Police said the attack occurred a 4.10am on Sunday 14 October 2012, after the woman had become separated from friends following a night out in Wigan and flagged down what she thought was a taxi in the town centre.

She was driven to her home in a district of the town but when she asked how much the fare was, Smith told her she did not need to pay him – and instead he asked her to perform a sex act on him.

The woman told the court: ''He said it was because his wife did not give him much at all and that I was a good looking girl.

''I was shocked. I said I didn’t understand what he meant. I just wanted to get out of the car. He had locked the doors when I got in. He opened his pants and exposed himself to me.''

The woman said Smith grabbed her hand and forced her to touch him intimately and she tried to pull her hand away. She added: ''I was screaming for him to let me out of the car.

''He said, ‘what was I creating a fuss for?’ and he let me out of the car. I telephoned my friend and told her what had happened. He drove off and I felt sick.''

The victim rang the police and made a statement. The car was seen on CCTV footage but not the registration plate and police made a public appeal for information.

On Saturday, October 27 two women were in the town centre waiting for a lift home and saw a car matching the wanted Nissan driving past them three times and they noted the registration number and looked at the driver.

One approached a nearby taxi driver and told him the Nissan had been driving around the town centre and the driver might be the same motorist wanted by the police for pretending to be a taxi driver trying to pick up young girls

Later the genuine cabbie spotted the Nissan and noticed a lone woman walking in the same direction and so turned his car round.

http://mancunianmatters.co.uk/content/1 ... oman-who-m

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Another terrible tale, but with a satisfactory outcome.

Two points I picked up on: the ineffectiveness of CCTV; the fact that people will flag down any car if they "think " it's a taxi. FFS, a TAXI has a TAXI sign on the roof.

Round here they try and flag cop cars down.

How can you say the CCTV was ineffective when it got the make of the car. Without the make of the car the police would have given the description as a silver car.

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

The make and model of the car while better than nothing, it is hardly conclusive proof. The point being if the CCTV had done it's job. They would have gotten the registration and nailed the pest at the outset.

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

But it's not ineffective either. My point is Roythebus seems to think there is no point at all in having CCTV when clearly it does help, it's not a cure all but then I've never it is.

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Toots writes:


A fair point.

However, I think the trick is to have CCTV, that actually works, sufficiently well enough identify the perpetrator and his vehicle. This time they were only lucky it didn't end up as a rape or a murder.

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

The new Leroy is waiting for him