Taxi Driver Online

Taxi rapist jailed for 10 years

Phillips was convicted by a crown court jury in Swansea last month
A taxi driver has been jailed for 10 years for raping a schoolgirl and for another sex assault in Swansea.
Nigel Phillips, 36, from Gower, was sentenced on Thursday for raping a 15-year-old girl and indecently assaulting another female passenger.

The father-of-three, known as 'Psycho', denied the charges but a jury found him guilty at Swansea Crown last month.

Police said since then another two women have complained about Phillips and a fresh investigation has begun.

Both these offences constitute a gross breach of trust

Judge John Diehl

The court heard Phillips used his job to target young women for sex.

In November 2001 he collected three girls from a nightclub and after dropping two of them off swerved up a dark lane and raped the third, who was 15.

She could not pluck up the courage to complain and Phillips, who lived in the Gower village of Crofty, thought he had got away with it.

His older victim became fed up of his sexual advances and asked his taxi firm not to send him again but he turned up in disguise and assaulted her after she got into his cab thinking she was safe.

Sentencing Phillips to a total of 10 years Judge John Diehl banned him from working with children or driving taxis indefinitely.

He was also ordered to register with the police as a sex offender until further notice.

"Both these offences constitute a gross breach of trust," said the judge.

"Members of the public taking taxis and cabs are entitled to be able to place their trust in the driver."

The former bouncer smiled to relatives in the public gallery as he was jailed for nine years for rape and one for indecent assault.

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

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4202813.stm

Expanding on this case.
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January 20, 2005, Thursday

HEADLINE: TAXI RAPE-ACCUSED'S 'CAUTIONS'

BYLINE: BY ROBIN TURNER WESTERN MAIL

A taxi driver accused of raping a schoolgirl customer was given a licence to drive cabs despite having a police caution for blackmail, a jury heard yesterday. At Swansea Crown Court, former doorman Nigel Warren Phillips, 36, of Crofty, Gower, denies raping the girl.

The attack is said to have taken place three years ago when the alleged victim, 15 at the time, was being driven home from a night out at Cinderella's nightclub in Mumbles.

She has told the jury she knew the defendant, who worked for Sketty Cabs, from previous taxi trips. She claimed Phillips drove his taxi to an isolated lane near the Hendrefoilan Student Village in Swansea and raped her.

Beginning his defence yesterday afternoon Phillips explained how he became known as 'psycho'.

He said he was working as a doorman at the Waterloo in Station Road, Llanelli, in 1990 when he obtained the nickname.

He told the jury, 'I'm not the tallest fella and some of the boys would joke about my size. They gave me a nickname to go with it and it stuck.'

Chris Clee, defending, told the jury Phillips had no previous convictions. But he told them his client had been cautioned twice, once in August, 1999, for blackmail.

The facts of the case were, the court heard, that Phillips had threatened to place a naked photo of a former girlfriend on the internet. He made the threat because she was the mother of their four-year-old daughter and there were difficulties over access.

When she got the offer of a job in Essex he used the naked photo threat to stop her going but the police became involved and he accepted a caution. Phillips told the court he was granted a licence to drive cabs by Swansea council in December 2001. He said, 'I made an application in October of that year but was told I would have to go in front of the committee because I had a caution for blackmail at the time on my record.'

He said he was 'given his badges' by the authority shortly before Christmas that year.

The court heard that a month later he was given another caution, this time for burglary and theft.

He told the court the had been working for Pullman Coaches as a driver and when he finished went to a depot to retrieve 'some of his stuff'. He accepted there was confusion over what was his and what was not his and he accepted a police caution.

However, the defendant said he was subsequently rehired by Pullman Coaches and was working for them now.

Phillips, who says he does not remember the complainant, told the jury he would not have climbed over the front seat into the back, as has been alleged.

He said he suffered medical problems due to twice dislocating a shoulder and once breaking a bone in his neck in a motocross competition.

The prosecution in the case has accepted medical evidence submitted by the defendant relating to the injuries.

The case continues....
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