Taxi Driver Online

he Journal (Newcastle, UK)

November 6, 2007 Tuesday

mid-life Crisis' Sex Assault Man Fined £750

SHAMED taxi boss Stephen Jack was told by a judge he may have been facing "a mid-life crisis" when he indecently assaulted a "vulnerable" 19-year-old man.

The 38-year-old married father-of-two of Meadow Laws, South Shields, was found guilty of molesting the youngster described as a "potential employee" after a four-day trial at Newcastle Crown Court last month.

Yesterday Judge Richard Lowden, sitting at Durham Crown Court, fined him £750 after hearing from his barrister, David Robson QC, how Jack had already suffered the "shame and scandal he's brought upon himself." He had also sold his taxi business in South Shields.

Judge Richard Lowden told him: "You have been convicted after a trial of this offence of sexual assault on a young man.

"The victim was a potential employee, he was vulnerable, a loner and he will be damaged by this experience.

"You took him drinking and you ended up in a remote location at night and a sexual incident took place.

"You are a married man with children and with no previous convictions.

"Perhaps this was a manifestation of what some people would call a mid life crisis in which you experimented with some sort of sexual activity outside your usual experience."

At his trial the court heard how Jack molested the teenager during a night-time walk on Cleadon Hills.

The teenager was not in court, but gave his evidence via a television link. He said: "I kept telling him to stop it and get off and he kept asking why?"
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