Posted for no good reason save the obvious
Taxi driver strangled after row over change DRAMATIC video footage seen at Limerick District Court showed a taxi driver being strangled from behind as he drove away from the scene of an altercation at Carew Park.
Taxi driver Noel Casey said he was unaware he still had a passenger in the back as he took off following a heated row with Derek Mitchell, 35, of Tower View Rhebogue.
Mr Mitchell - who was charged with assaulting Mr Casey causing him harm - denied headbutting the taxi driver in the course of an argument over money. The man who then attempted to choke the taxi driver was not in court, having fled the jurisdiction, Judge Eugene O’Kelly was told.
Mr Casey was dropping a number of people off at Carew Park at around 1.30am on February 12, 2011. He had been tendered a €50 note for a €14 fare and the footage showed Mr Casey asking Derek Mitchell to check his change. He said he was concerned some money might have fallen on the floor of the cab while he was handing over the change.
The footage - taken on an in-vehicle camera - showed Derek Mitchell open the driver’s door and begin shouting at Mr Casey: “I’ll have my right change and don’t try to bulls**t me now” and “give it out, you chancing c**t”.
Mr Mitchell was left at the side of the road as Mr Casey pulled away, not realising he still had a passenger in the back. This man demanded that the driver stop and accused him of “holding me hostage”. Mr Casey kept driving as the passenger attempted to strangle him - as he knew there were gardai in an unmarked car a short distance away.
“I would have lost my life if it wasn’t for them. I could feel myself starting to black out and I headed straight for the unmarked police car,” said Mr Casey. The driver said he had temporarily lost his voice as a result of the strangulation attempt and was discharged from hospital after five or six hours.
Solicitor Darrach McCarthy, defending Derek Mitchell, acknowledged that Mr Casey was “subjected to a sustained and serious assault - but by the person who attempted to strangle you”. While Derek Mitchell had gone “head to head” with Mr Casey, there was nothing in the footage to show that he had actually headbutted him, Mr McCarthy said.
Mr Casey acknowledged that there was no footage of what he said were two headbutts as these had happened as Mr Casey was leaning out of the vehicle and the camera only covered what happened in the cab. But he said footage showing him recoil were as a result of being headbutted by Mr Mitchell.
Mr McCarthy also referred to footage which he said showed Mr Casey “reach into the door pocket (where he kept his money), take something and put it down between the seats” before the gardai could inspect the vehicle.
“No I definitely didn’t do that,” Mr Casey replied.
Garda Finbarr Russell told the court that he had seen a €5 note on the floor but declined to speculate on how it had got there.
“All I know is that when I opened the door, I saw €5 on the floor,” Garda Russell said.
Mr McCarthy said his client, who has no previous convictions and spoke to gardai of his shame over his behaviour, had not headbutted the driver. There was no evidence on the camera that he had assaulted Mr Casey. Neither was there any medical evidence that Mr Casey had been physically harmed.
Judge O’Kelly said that the manner in which Mr Mitchell had dealt with his suspicion he had been shortchanged - which might have gone unnoticed if Mr Casey had not asked him to check his change - was “absolutely outrageous”. He would have had “no hesitation in convicting him” had he been charged with the lesser offence of common assault.
But there had to be an element of doubt as to whether “harm sufficient to warrant a section 3 (assault causing harm) was occasioned”. The case against Derek Mitchell was dismissed.
http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/local ... -1-4504404
Login
Register
FAQ
