Taxi Driver Online

The person involved in this attack is no doubt a Taxi user but you wouldn't know the extreme violent nature of this person until it was too late. This incident highlights just how exposed cabbies are to potential violence.
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Herald Express (Torquay)

August 14, 2006 Monday

HEADLINE: Soldier injured in vicious assault

A soldier was left with a broken nose, a fractured skull and swelling on the brain after he was the victim of an unprovoked assault in Torquay.

Corporal Alexander Carson, 24, of Chelston, was allegedly punched and head-butted while standing in a taxi queue in Torquay's Victoria Parade. He had only just returned home from four back-to-back tours of Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo and Kenya. The young soldier said he had gone out with his friends and was making his way home when the alleged attack happened.

He said: "I was standing in the taxi queue when I was tapped on the shoulder. As I turned around I was punched in the face and the next thing I knew I woke up in hospital. At first thought I had been run over because I couldn't remember anything and I was in so much pain."

Mr Carson was released from hospital the next day with a broken nose but later he blacked out and it was discovered the force of the attack caused a fracture to his skull and swelling to his brain. He added: "I was driving down town and feeling a bit funny. Thankfully I managed to pull in because I just blacked out. I was taken back to hospital and they found there was swelling on my brain. It is very worrying."

The soldier now has to undergo an operation to reset his nose and will have to have further CAT scans to check his brain. "When I am off on tours all over the place I always think of Torquay as a bit of a toy town," he said. "It is somewhere you look forward to coming back to and you think of it as a nice safe tourist town, but it seems it is not really like that anymore. It is just a bit shocking and not something you expect."

Mr Carson thanked members of the public and police who he has been told came to his aid. He said: "I don't think the police could have been more supportive."

Police are investigating the assault which they say was unprovoked and happened some time between 1.30am and 2am on August 4. Three people were arrested on suspicion of affray and later released on police bail until October 4. They are a 16-year-old boy, an eighteen-year-old youth and a twenty-year-old man all from Plymouth. Police are appealing for other witnesses to come forward. It is believed that other witnesses also from Plymouth may have seen what happened.

Anyone who witnessed the incident or has any information regarding the crime is asked to contact the police via Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 quoting crime reference FT/06/7343.
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