Kathleen Ritchie pleads guilty to racial assault of taxi driver
A WOMAN passenger who attacked a taxi driver and hurled racial insults at him has appeared in court.
Kathleen Ritchie, 49, had been a taxi driver herself for 15 years before setting up a cleaning business. But that did not stop her hitting taxi driver Riza Kilic.
Martin Butterworth, prosecuting, said that she hurled abuse at the driver and said “everything was going all right until you foreigners came along” during the incident in Montague Road, Bishopthorpe.
But she was using her mobile phone at the time, and it recorded her words, he told York magistrates.
Ritchie, of Eason View, Dringhouses, pleaded guilty to racial assault and was ordered to pay £100 compensation to Mr Kilic. She was also fined £100 and made to pay a £15 Government imposed victim surcharge and £85 prosecution costs.
Mr Butterworth said the taxi arrived at the home of Ritchie’s friend in Montague Road at 11.30pm on December 14. The friend was so drunk that Mr Kilic had to help her and Ritchie get her out of the vehicle. Then Mr Kilic saw a damp patch on the back seat of his cab and Ritchie argued with him. Mr Kilic was not injured by the assault.
Lee-Anne Robins-Hick, Ritchie’s solicitor, said she and her friend had not got the money to pay for cleaning up the mess and she offered to sort it out in the morning if the taxi driver would take her home. But Mr Kilic did not agree to that.
Ms Robins-Hick said Ritchie had not realised when out with friends that evening that she should not mix alcohol and the medicine she was taking and had behaved out of character.
In 15 years as a taxi driver, she herself had been the victim of abuse from drunken people. She could not remember hitting Mr Kilic.
She had just had an operation which meant that she could not put weight on her foot for eight weeks and could not work, so she was living on benefits.
you got to see the picture!
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/5024601 ... xi_driver/
Login
Register
FAQ
