Taxi Driver Online

A TEENAGER has been locked up for a “bizarre and outlandish” race hate attack on an Asian taxi driver.

Teesside Crown Court heard how drunken Daniel Madden became violent while getting a cab home in Billingham.

Madden, then 17, racially abused driver Naseer Ahmed during the taxi ride to his home in Central Avenue.

The apprentice joiner became aggressive before launching a sustained attack, said prosecutor Richard Parsell.

Madden, who had been out drinking, repeatedly punched Mr Ahmed in the face.

He also grabbed him by the neck and bit him on the side of the head, said Mr Parsell.

Madden then made off from the taxi without paying for the fare on January 16 last year.

He was later arrested by police at his home after his parents became concerned about his behaviour.

The teenager, now 18, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault causing actual bodily harm and making off without payment.

But his barrister told the court that Madden did not hold racist views and “didn’t recognise himself” from his behaviour on that occasion.

Duncan McReddie urged the judge not to allow recent high-profile race hate cases to influence his judgment.

Madden, he said, couldn’t be compared to the racist killers of Stephen Lawrence.

He said those convicted of Mr Lawrence’s murder had an established history of racism.

Mr McReddie said: “This young man has no such history.”

He said Madden, who came from a supportive, law-abiding family, couldn’t understand his “bizarre and outlandish” behaviour, which was “out of character”.

Madden, he said, had no explanation but speculated that he may have had his drink spiked.

“He bitterly regrets it.

“He doesn’t consider himself to be a racist person. He doesn’t hold those views.

“He understands that what he said is wholly unacceptable. It is not based on a deep-seated racial hostility.”

Recorder Jonathan Sandiford said taxi drivers performed a valuable public service but were vulnerable to attacks and were entitled to look to courts for protection.

The judge said: “The message must go out that people who commit racially aggravated assaults and people who assault taxi drivers in the way you did must expect immediate custodial sentences in order to deter others from behaving in the same way.”

He sentenced Madden, of Central Avenue, Billingham, to six months in a young offenders’ institution.


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