Vile racist thug Shaun Franey who held a knife to a taxi driver's face while demanding cash Judge says Franey carried out his crimes for no reason other than "badness"
This is the face of a drunken thug who hurled racist abuse at a taxi driver while slashing him with a knife before racially harassing his passenger.
Shaun Franey, 33, tried to rob Iranian cabbie Hossain Habiloudeshiri while calling him a “f****** p***” just after midnight on June 27 this year.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how he then repeatedly used the N-word against Nigerian student Grace Iwetan as she tried to leave the scene.
Chris Taylor, prosecuting, said the taxi arrived in Marmaduke Street in Kensington, where Franey was standing with some friends.
Without warning the defendant, of Sutcliffe Street, Kensington, went to the driver’s window and started demanding money and screaming racist abuse.
Mr Taylor said: “The defendant put his head through the open window and put a knife to the side of the complainant’s face and with his other hand grabbed the car keys out of the ignition.”
The victim described Franey cutting the side of his face and neck in four places.
Mr Habiloudeshiri said: “The male then shouted to me ‘I’m sorry’. I said sorry because I was frightened and wanted him to go away.”
Franey threw the car keys away and ran off empty-handed.
Miss Iwetan was walking down the road when Franey then approached her.
Mr Taylor said he shouted to her ‘b****, get back in your car” followed by a stream of racist abuse.
The taxi driver called police and CCTV operators tracked Franey to Edinburgh Road, where he was arrested.
He told police he had been drinking heavily and did not remember the incident, but it “would not have been him”.
Mr Habiloudeshiri said the attack left him wary of male customers who approach his window and his wife is now nervous when he goes to work.
Miss Iwetan described fearing for her safety and is worried about going out on her own at night.
Franey, who admitted attempted robbery and racially aggravated harassment, has 15 previous convictions for 31 offences.
He was locked up for four years for aggravated burglary and robbery in 2002, after breaking into a home with an eight-strong gang and carrying out a knifepoint raid on a shop with two other men.
He was jailed for six years for conspiracy to rob in 2006 after an attempted cash-in-transit robbery and for 78 months in 2011 after robbing another store at knifepoint.
He was on licence at the time after being released from prison in January.
Peter Killen, defending, said his client was genuinely remorseful.
Jailing Franey for six years, Judge Andrew Menary, QC, said he had used “the most vile racist abuse”.
He said: “What happened was dreadful and reprehensible - every taxi driver and member of the public’s worst fears when out in the city at night.
“For no reason at all, other than your badness, you approached that taxi. All of this was utterly terrifying for this man and his female passenger.”
source:
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liv ... n-10390353
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