Thug battered taxi driver then warned 'around here we'll shoot you'https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/li ... d-22105997The driver lost control of his vehicle at the start of the attack
Image: Merseyside Police/Liverpool EchoA thug carried out a frenzied attack on a taxi driver while he was a passenger in his vehicle, causing the victim to lose control on the car.
Kieran McKechnie beat Mohammed Ammanulah numerous times while riding in his car and later told the Delta driver "around here we'll shoot you".
Mr Amanullah said his life would "never be the same" after the attack, which Liverpool Crown Court heard was triggered by a conversation between him and McKechnie about whether he was English.
McKechnie, of Anders Drive, Kirkby, had denied inflicting actual bodily harm on Mr Amanullah but was found guilty by magistrates earlier this year and sent to prison today.
The November 2019 incident happened after Mr Amanullah responded to a taxi order from the 32-year-old, who was returning from a trip to a pub in Melling with two family members.
Prosecuting, Gerald Baxter said the situation first became tense after an exchange early on in the trip when McKechnie asked Mr Amanullah if he was English.
Mr Baxter said that when the driver replied that he wasn't and asked if there was a problem, McKechnie said: "Do you think I'm an idiot?"
After dropping the other family members at an address in Kirkby, McKechnie, who had been drinking, then asked to be taken to the shops.
The court heard that while on the way there Mr Amanullah asked McKechnie why he had asked him about where he had come from, causing McKechnie to begin punching him numerous times.
The first blows caused Mr Amanullah to hit the accelerator before managing to regain control and stop the car.
After the frenzied attack the court heard McKechnie said to his victim: "Let's talk. You're in Kirkby and around here we will shoot you."
McKechnie, who represented himself at today's sentencing hearing, disputed the sequence of events put forward by the prosecution and said Mr Amanullah landed the first punch despite a magistrates court finding him guilty of inflicting actual bodily harm.
He said his questions had not been intended as racist and that he had sensed that Mr Amanullah was being "passive aggressive", leading to a fight which he said both men were participating in equally.
The judge, Recorder Michael Taylor, was unconvinced by McKechnie's alternative sequence of events and jailed him for 18 months.
Mr Amanullah said his life "would never be the same after the attack" and that he had been left nervous and fearful of carrying out his job and doing basic things like going to the shops.
Aside from being left with cuts and bruises to his face and hands, Mr Amanullah said he was more nervous about accepting fares from people who had been drinking and that his family worried about him working.
Recorder Taylor said the fact that McKechnie was not found guilty of racially aggravated offences meant the suggestion of a racial element to the attack would not be factored into sentencing.
However, he said it was clear even from early into the trip that his comments had left Mr Amanullah "no doubt apprehensive as to where this was going".
Addressing McKechnie, the judge said: "You have heard Mr Amanullah's impact statement. You have changed his life."
He said the fact that the attack had been launched while Mr Amanullah was doing his job further convinced him that only a custodial sentence was appropriate.
He said: "People need to know that if they perform an attack on a taxi driver they will go to prison."
McKechnie was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay a victim surcharge.
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