'Crazed Cab Driver' Left Man With Brain Damage After Attack
29 October 2009
A Bermondsey artist has been left with brain damage after he was allegedly smashed over the head with a bottle of wine and left for dead in a deserted park by a black cab driver.
And the successful local artist, Paul Freud, told the 'News' he might as well have died in the attack because it has left him unable to paint.
The cabbie allegedly locked Paul, 50, in the back of his Hackney carriage and hurtled through the streets of London after an argument broke out over the fare.
Terrified and thinking the worst, Paul compared his captor to the serial sex attacker and black cab driver, John Worboys, asking: "Have you got some champagne in the back?"
But by the time they screeched to a halt at Mint Street Park, the driver had knocked Paul out cold with his own full bottle of white wine, he said. He then dumped his body in the park and drove off.
Paul told the 'News' he had got the cab at Victoria station after walking from an arts evening in Chelsea.
When they reached his house the argument about the fare ensued, and at this point, he said, the cabbie locked the doors and sped away.
"I panicked," Paul said, "I couldn't see any motivation other than something really sinister.
"So I started swinging my bag against the window, which had a bottle of wine in - really I just wanted him to let me out."
Despite the injuries Paul suffered in the attack that followed, he managed to flag down a passing police car at around 2.30am, on Monday October 12 at Borough High Street.
The blow to his skull left it shattered and pushed 2cm into his brain. As a result he now suffers short-term memory loss and has lost movement and feeling in his right hand.
When neurosurgeons at King's College Hospital saw the injuries, they told him the immediate surgery that had been scheduled was cancelled because it was too dangerous.
Paul added: "I couldn't praise the staff at King's enough."
Paul is now worried the next person who questions a fare might not be so lucky and is appealing for anyone who was in the Mint Street Park area between 1am and 2.30am on Monday October 12 to try to remember if they saw anything.
Anyone on Southwark Park Road at around 1.30am to 2.am who remembers seeing a black cab driving at speed - with a man banging against the window - should also contact officers on 020 7232 6145 or speak to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
The driver is described as a "massive" black man, with broad shoulders, and the build of a boxer.
Source; southwarknews.co.uk
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