Brave Cabbie - Prison Sentence Not Long Enough
13 September 2009
A brave taxi driver says the prison sentence given to two men who carried out a brutal assault on him is not long enough.
John Evans, aged 37, and Ross Henderson, 52, were jailed for six months and 18 weeks respectively last week for an attack on cabbie Paul Flint which involved slamming his head in a car door.
The assault left the 49-year-old Apple Central Taxis employee thousands of pounds out of pocket because he was unable to work for two weeks following the incident outside The Regency in Lower Church Road in the evening of July 27.
Mr Flint, of Ealrham Grove, called the pair's sentence unjust and said it should have been longer.
He said: "I'm happy some justice has been served but I find it bizarre that they got a discount for admitting they did it, because their sentence should have been longer."
A previous hearing at North Somerset Courthouse in St Georges heard that Henderson started the assault outside by punching the father-of-seven in the head after Evans, aged 52, had smashed his car's wing mirror following a request for payment.
An off-duty police officer gave a statement saying Henderson punched Mr Flint in the head several times.
Following the blows, money was thrown on the floor and as the victim tried to pick it up Evans ran up from behind the taxi driver when he was picking up coins that the pair threw on the floor.
Mr Flint, who coaches Weston Crusaders Football Club under-16s, said he remembers little of the assault and his wife is reluctant to let him go to work.
He said: "It was all a bit of a blur after I was struck in the head.
"I assumed that the blood on my legs had run down from my head, but it was from wounds down there.
"Everything has changed now and I treat my job differently, especially when I pick up groups of blokes.
"My wife sometimes doesn't want to let me get in the car, but I have to work to support my family."
Evans, of St Marks Road, Worle, was ordered to pay £800 compensation at a sentencing for actual bodily harm at on September 3.
He was also given concurrent sentences of two months for assaulting a police constable, which happened after the attack in a nearby car park, as well as 10 weeks and £988.47 for criminal damage.
Henderson, of Greenland Road, was given 18 weeks in prison for actual bodily harm after the pair had pleaded guilty to all the charges at a previous hearing.
Source; Weston & Somerset Mercury - WestonMercury.co.uk
Login
Register
FAQ
