14/09/2012

Two And A Half Years For Attack On Taxi Driver

A man has been jailed for two-and-a-half years for an attack on a taxi driver, who was headbutten and bitten.

43-year-old James Pilgrim, of Newgate Road in Hastings, admitted causing actual bodily harm at a previous hearing before magistrates in the town.

Taxi driver Lee Curtis suffered cracked ribs and had to have six stitches in his fingers as a result of the attack in July and left the room when CCTV of the attack was played during sentencing.

Summing up, the judge Mr Justice Kemp said anyone serving the public should be able to do their job without fear of violence.

The attack happen outside Pilgrim’s home around 00:30 on July 19 and was caught on the cabs CCTV.

After the hearing, Mr Curtis said: "I appreciate it's a custodial sentence but for the severity and the nastiness of it and for the fact that I couldn't defend myself... I think he should have got longer than that.

"I still get headaches, flashbacks. In the back of my head, I don't trust anybody.

"I look at everybody now and I'm on my guard. It's just a horrible, horrible thing."

(H)


Related UK National News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

27 October 2015
Unlicensed Minicab Driver Jailed For Killing Passenger
An unlicensed minicab driver has been jailed for eight years for causing the death of a passenger. Matab Uddin, 59, of Blackshots Lane, Essex was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving and fraud. The court heard how police were called on Sunday, 17 November 2013 at about 1:45am to reports of a man injured on Essex Road.
03 August 2012
'Taxi Driver' Rapist Jailed
A man who posed as a taxi driver and raped a woman on Christmas Eve has been jailed for eight years. Nathan Gifford, 44, raped the 25-year-old in 2011 after she left a nightclub in Gillingham, Kent. She was on her own, having become separated from a friend, and Gifford helped her in to his borrowed taxi. He then raped her and abandoned her.
13 October 2003
High Street set to offer NHS hearing aids
NHS hearing aids are set to be made available – free of charge to NHS patients – on the High Street, under plans announced today by the department of health.
07 December 2012
15 Years For Cab Driver Who Used Taxi 'As A Weapon'
A taxi driver has been jailed for 15 years for using his black cab "like a bowling ball" to run down a group of men. 28-year-old Majid Rehman, of Grangetown, Cardiff, deliberately used his taxi to run over six rail workers and two other pedestrians on a pavement after a row at a taxi rank.
20 November 2014
Police Renew Appeal For Information On 1994 Taxi Driver Murder
A reward of £20,000 is being offered for information leading to a conviction for the 1994 murder of Ethsham 'Shami' Ghafoor. Mr Ghafoor was found in his taxi shot dead in the early hours of 22nd November, 2014, in Lambley Lane, Gedling, Nottinghamshire.