Taxi Driver Online

No shortage of detail here, either as regards the incident, or the sentencing stuff (or deferral thereof).

Sounds like a blast for the driver, though


Drunken taxi passenger put knife to cabbie's throat on journey from hell from Filey to Scarborough

https://www.thescarboroughnews.co.uk/ne ... gh-8549230

A drunken taxi passenger put a knife to a cabbie’s throat and grabbed the steering wheel while the vehicle was in motion during a terrifying journey from Filey to Scarborough.

Karl Cairns, 37, pulled out a knife as the taxi driver set off from Filey and threatened to jump out of the cab as he hung out of the passenger door, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Rachel Webster said the cab driver was parked in Queen Street, Filey, when Cairns -who had 89 previous offences on his record - walked over to the driver’s-side door holding a box of alcohol.

Cairns, of Rowan Avenue, Filey, then got into the taxi via the passenger door, ostensibly asked to be taken to Scarborough, then reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a knife.

As he did so, he turned to the driver and said: “I’ve got a knife. Do you want me to stab you? Well, do you want to stab me?”

When the cab driver said “no, I’m a family man”, Cairns, who appeared to be drunk, put the blade back in his pocket.

As the journey continued along the A165 towards Scarborough, Cairns suddenly opened the passenger door while the vehicle was travelling at about 50mph.

When the driver asked him to close the door, Cairns - now leaning outside the door, hanging onto the door handle - shouted: “Do you want me to jump? I’m going to jump.”

He eventually closed the door but then started “swearing out loud” and pulled the knife out again, holding it aloft and again threatening to “use it”.

He then opened the passenger door again and shouted: “I’m going to jump.”

The driver pleaded with him to shut the door which he did but then opened it a third time and closed it again as they drove out of Cayton Bay.

Cairns became increasingly “agitated” as they drove towards Scarborough and placed the carton of “beer or cider” on the dashboard.

The taxi driver had to hold the alcohol container as they approached Scarborough, but then Cairns grabbed the steering wheel and started “pulling it in the direction of the kerb”.

As the vehicle began to veer towards the edge of the road, the driver managed to pull the steering wheel back in the other direction to correct its course and “regain control”.

Cairns then jumped out of the car and ran off, leaving behind the knife which appeared to have been dropped in the passenger well.

The driver took the blade to a local police station and Cairns was later arrested.

The court heard that at one stage in the journey, Cairns held the knife to the taxi driver’s throat and held it to his own throat.

He was charged with threatening a person with a blade and carrying a knife in public.

He admitted the offences and appeared for sentence today (Friday, May 15).

Ms Webster said that Cairns had 46 previous convictions for 89 offences including seven “offences against the person”, affray and carrying a blade.

Defence barrister Connor Stuart said that Cairns was suffering from “a combination of mental disorders” at the time of the taxi journey, including a “personality disorder, compounded by substance misuse”.

He said that Cairns’s behaviour had been affected by Pregablin, the prescription drug ordinarily used as a painkiller, which he was taking at the time.

He said that since the terrifying taxi drive on the evening of November 29, 2024, which occurred during a “period of instability and poor mental health”, Cairns had shown a “marked improvement” and had “changed considerably” following rehabilitation in the community.

Judge Sean Morris described Cairns’s behaviour during the taxi ride as “shocking”.

However, he noted a doctor’s report saying that he had been affected by Pregablin. He said that before seeing the psychiatric report, he was minded to send Cairns straight to jail for the “really serious” offences.

But rather than dealing with Cairns now, he would defer sentence to see if he could stay out of trouble and try to get a job to pay compensation to the taxi driver.

He told Cairns: “(apart from) one fall from grace since this offence in November 2024, you have not really got into that much trouble and you are doing exceptionally well. It might be that locking you up wrecks all that.”

Mr Morris decided to defer sentence for six months “just to see if you can maintain your present course in life”.

But he warned Cairns: “One deviation from that fine line (between jail and a community sentence), one offence, one arrest, just one misstep, and you will be locked up.”

Sentence was adjourned to November 13.

I wonder how the North Wales Coroner would have handled that one?

But no doubt who would have got the blame if the daftie had jumped out of the car...

And, to be fair, it might have been better for the driver to terminate the hire. At least from the perspective of the North Wales Coroner.

But, of course, as we all know, that could have actually made things worse...