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Evening Herald (Plymouth)
May 15, 2007 Tuesday
Former taxi driver denies sex assaults
CAROL SAUNDERS Court Reporter
A former Plymouth taxi driver is on trial at the city's crown court charged with sexually 'groping' three women passengers.
Robin Brisley, aged 62, is alleged to have sent one woman fleeing from his cab into the darkness after she claimed he stroked her leg in a sexual way.
On another occasion Brisley is alleged to have fondled the thigh and leg of a young mother and in a third alleged incident an older woman claimed the former Tower Cab driver ran his hand down her thigh.
Brisley, a former Royal Navy military policeman for 30 years, of Lower Burraton, Saltash, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of sexual assault by touching another, which was without her consent and that the touching was sexual.
A young mother told the court that when Brisley was dropping her off around the beginning of February last year he reached back and put his hand on her inner thigh and ran it up and down her leg a couple of times.
She told the jury: "He (Brisley) then said 'thank you my love' and looked out of the window as if nothing had happened.''
She rang Tower Cabs and told them she didn't want Brisley picking her up again and he was summoned before administration manager Howard Helliwell, who warned him about 'over familiarisation' with passengers, the court heard.
An older woman claimed that in May last year as she sat in the front passenger seat of Brisley's cab he put his hand on her thigh and ran it down her leg to her knee. She said: "I felt shaken, upset and physically sick.''
Later she also got a message through to Tower Cab bosses that she didn't want Brisley picking her up again because of what he had done, the court heard.
Again Brisley denied to his bosses that he had done anything untoward.
A married woman then told the jury that on June 3 last year Brisley picked her and a female friend up from a restaurant.
After dropping her friend off she claimed that Brisley said to her as he drove her towards her home: "You are very pretty. You have got lovely eyes. Why don't you sit by me in the front?''
When she said no she claimed Brisley reached back and started to stroke her shin.
She said that Brisley then stopped the cab in a somewhat isolated area in the north of the city and switched off the headlights, the court heard.
She said: "I reached for the door and got out. I was running and I tripped and fell. When I looked round the car was no longer there.''
Five minutes later she arrived home crying and suffering from black eyes, cuts and grazes to her knees and elbow from when she fell over. Her husband contacted police.
Giving evidence, Brisley claimed he had just touched the woman's shin because he thought she had dropped off to sleep and that she had asked him to stop the cab because she thought she was going to be sick.
But he denied touching any of the women in a sexual way, saying he might have brushed the back of his hand against one of them as he changed gear.
The three women cannot be named for legal reasons.
The trial continues.
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