Taxi Driver Online

Colchester taxi driver assault: Teen jailed for 'vicious' attack

https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/198 ... us-attack/



A TAXI driver who was beaten and “left for dead” at the side of the road in a violent robbery told a court his children didn’t even recognise him when he returned home from hospital.

Father-of-three Nurul Islam, 40, was left with life-threatening injuries after his customer, 19-year-old Jack Powell, launched a drink-fuelled attack.

Ipswich Crown Court heard at around 3.30am on November 7 last year, a resident living in Tower Mill Road, Ipswich, spotted a commotion from his window.

He witnessed what he assumed to be a fight taking place inside a parked Hackney carriage.

He saw a male being dragged from the driver’s side of the taxi and alerted the police.

The driver, Mr Islam, was found by officers face down next to his taxi on a grass verge.

They could see he had a swollen face and cuts to his lip and brow.

After noticing his breathing was shallow, the officers called an ambulance.

Powell was found nearby and immediately confessed to assaulting and robbing Mr Islam, telling officers he became angry at the price quoted for his journey.

He said: “I’m not going to lie, I kicked the taxi driver and everything”.

Mr Islam had picked Powell up from Colchester High Street before driving to Ipswich.

Officers recovered £200 in cash from Powell, who made further comments to the police en route to the station.

The court heard he said: “The taxi driver asked for £50, I thought I’d given it to him.”

Mr Islam endured a month-long hospital stay as a result of his life-threatening injuries, which included skull and facial bone fractures, as well as traumatic brain injury.

An Addenbrooke's Hospital consultant said the injuries were consistent with repeated blows to the face.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Islam said he had been the victim of a “cruel and heinous crime”.

“Every morning I wake up and I still cannot comprehend what happened to me,” he said.

“I have to remind myself that I’m safe now.”

He said at the time of the assault “all he could think about” was his wife, his children and the fear of not making it home to them.

He said Powell had “brutally attacked him and left him for dead”.

Mr Islam also shed light on the devastating “emotional and financial burden” suffered by his family while he underwent lifesaving treatment.

“When I returned home my eldest daughter and son did not even recognise me due to the serious injuries and surgeries,” he said.

“How do you think that made me feel after a whole month missing them and crying for them?”

He added: “I will never be able to go back into my occupation, which is something I genuinely enjoyed before I was assaulted.

“My attacker has taken this away from me.

"That night will always be my biggest regret. As a taxi driver I don't like to travel out of town late at night.

"My intention was this would be my last job before I went home."

In a further statement read to the court, Mr Islam's partner said: "He was innocently working to provide a living for his family, and it ended up with him fighting for his life."

Powell, of Lattice Avenue, Ipswich, admitted robbery and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Jamie Sawyer, mitigating, said his client was of previous good character aside from a youth caution in 2014 for an assault.

He said Powell is “extremely remorseful and very sorry for the hurt and upset he caused”.

He added: “He wants me to put forward he did not in any way set out to commit that offence that night, it was something that arose in this way because he was in drink, and he feels absolutely terrible to have caused this upset and hurt to a man he didn’t know”.

Mr Sawyer said his client is still a young man of “limited maturity”, who had endured a difficult upbringing.

Recorder Graham Huston sentenced Powell to four years and two months in a young offender institution.

Describing the robbery as “vicious and nasty”, he said: “You have left him deeply traumatised and have destroyed his means of making a living and being his family’s breadwinner.

“The amount of suffering you have caused to the victim, his wife and his children, is incomparable.”

In Powell’s favour, Mr Huston highlighted his lack of previous convictions, his young age, his remorse and his difficult upbringing.

But he said Powell had sought “in part” to blame his victim, adding: “The reality is your comprehension of his behaviour was entirely enforced by the alcohol you had consumed.

“As you told officers in the aftermath, this was a straight robbery and assault of a taxi driver because you were angry at the amount of the fare.”

_________________
IDFIMH

Heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking.

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IDFIMH

Apart from that initial report, never anything to suggest there was more than the one person involved.

Perhaps the other four had been dropped earlier, but it certainly reads like there was only one passenger, but impossible to tell for definite from the reports.

But certainly looks like only Jack Powell involved in the assault, so the presence or otherwise of another four at some point during the trip is now of academic interest only

Don't think there's anything particularly new here, but interesting that police body-cams recorded his initial admission, so just like in-car CCTV, the evidential value of that sort of thing is obvious.

But a proper mugshot here as well


Colchester taxi driver attack: How police caught Jack Powell

https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/198 ... ck-powell/


Image: Gazette News

A DETECTIVE has praised the quick work of officers and the intervention of a Good Samaritan after a taxi driver was beaten and robbed in a “truly shocking display of violence”.

Jack Powell, 19, was seen dragging taxi driver Nurul Islam from the driver’s side of his car in Tower Mill Road, Ipswich, in the early hours of Sunday, November 7, last year.

When a member of the public went outside to investigate, Powell threw a mobile phone at him and fled in the direction of Bramford Road.

Officers arrived at the scene within matter of minutes and found the victim face down in the road and bleeding - having suffered significant head and facial injuries.

Meanwhile, other officers began searching the area for a suspect and after driving up and down a number of nearby streets, they found and arrested Powell just after 4am in Wallace Road.

Powell made immediate admissions to the arresting officer and was found with cash he had stolen from his victim, who had driven him from Colchester to Ipswich.

The 40-year-old Mr Islam sustained a fractured skull and other facial fractures, along with swelling to the brain.

He spent almost a month in Addenbrooke’s Hospital, where he was unconscious for a week and had to undergo multiple surgeries.

After admitting charges of robbery and causing grievous bodily harm with intent, Powell, of Lattice Avenue, Ipswich, was sentenced to four years and two months in a young offender institution at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday.

Detective Constable Damian Richer, of Suffolk Constabulary’s South CID, said: “This was a truly shocking display of violence and but for the intervention of a member of the public, the outcome could have been even worse than it already was.

“The quick response of the officers who were first on scene - in both ensuring the victim got urgent medical assistance and in locating the suspect and securing evidence - was crucial, as was the use of the arresting officer’s body-worn video in capturing the initial admissions made by Powell.”

Summarising the investigation which led to Powell’s guilty pleas in court, DC Richer said the probe involved “forensic seizures, photos of scenes and work with the victim”.

"The hard work of the attending officers and then the CID officers who took the case forward, all contributed to a guilty plea being secured at an early stage," he said.

“Having seen the injury photos from the evening and then meeting the victim in hospital three weeks later, I was amazed at the progress he had made.

“It was a testament to both his sheer determination to pull through for his wife and children and as a result of the excellent medical care he received.”

He added: “The victim has spoken of the far-reaching consequences of this attack - the impact on his family and of the fact he is unlikely to ever return to his old job.

“His injuries were so severe, that when he finally returned home after a month in hospital his children did not recognise him. Unsurprisingly he has been left traumatised by the attack and suffers with flashbacks.

“In the space of a few minutes on that Sunday morning a young man devastated the life of the victim and the victim’s family, along with his own life, in what was an alcohol-fuelled, unprovoked, cowardly and senseless act of aggression.

“At least Jack Powell pleaded guilty and spared the victim and his family the further trauma of a trial.

"I hope he uses the time that he is locked away to reflect on the impact of what he did, how a man out doing his job was beaten unconscious for no reason, and how life-changing taking that final fare of the night was for him and his family.”