Taxi Driver Online

UK Newsquest Regional Press - This is Wiltshire

October 4, 2006 Wednesday

HEADLINE: Teenager: I didn't lead on taxi driver

BYLINE: Gareth Bethell

DATELINE: Swindon Advertiser

A TEENAGER who has accused a 38-year-old taxi driver of sexually assaulting her has insisted to a jury that she is telling the truth.

On the second day of the trial of taxi driver Tim Harris at Swindon Crown Court, the 18-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, refuted his claims that she made the running.

The woman said Harris picked her up following a party in Penhill and drove her out into the country where he sexually assaulted her. She said that she was so scared about what was happening that she remained in the vehicle as he drove past her turning in Stratton.

They first stopped at the Kingsdown Industrial estate, she said, but after he saw another car they left and went to a rural location near Stanton Fitzwarren. But the driver, who was working for Millennium cabs, now V-cars, at the time of the incident in November last year, insists he did nothing wrong.

Under cross-examination from Claire Marlow, defending, the woman denied that she had made up the story through shame about what had taken place the previous night. Miss Marlow said: "I suggest you woke up that morning, you felt embarrassed about your behaviour the previous night and because of that you have suggested that this man did things to you against your will."

But the teenager denied that saying everything she had told the court before was true. Miss Marlow said: "I suggest it was you who didn't want to go home. And you stopped at the first place to be sick. You then went for a little walk.

"He had a cigarette. You asked for some chewing gum. As you were walking around you started to kiss. "The other car spooked you both and he suggested that you go somewhere else and you said yes.'

"He also said at any stage if you want to go home he would take you, didn't he? "When you got to the second location, the second stop that you describe, you say he got out and came and opened your door.

"I suggest that you started kissing again at that stage and he moved his seat forward and sat on the seat behind the driver's seat in the back of the car." But the teenager refuted each part of the driver's story as they were put to her by Miss Marlow.

She also insisted that the alleged indecency which took place was not consensual, saying she did not want it to happen, but did little to actively stop it.

The woman said she had been speaking to Harris after she got in his Skoda Octavia at about 11pm on Friday, November 4 because she often talked about her problems to taxi drivers. She insisted he had told her his name was Rob, and not Tim, and that he was 33 years old.

The court had earlier been told Harris had been sent to the party to pick up a man and another driver had been asked to collect the woman. But he picked up the teenager and turned off a GPS satellite tracking system in his car which allowed his bosses to track where he was.

Harris, of Charlton Close, Penhill, denies kidnap, sexual assault and two counts of attempted rape.

The case continues
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The verdict.
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October 10, 2006 Tuesday

HEADLINE: Taxi driver found guilty of kidnapping teenage girl

DATELINE: Swindon Advertiser

A TAXI driver has been warned he could face a prison term after he was convicted of kidnapping a young woman in his cab.

But a jury cleared Tim Harris of carrying out a sex attack on the 18-year-old victim.

The 38-year-old father-of-three told the trial at Swindon Crown Court that the youngster, who the jury found had been taken against her will, consented to what then took place.

Earlier she had told how he took her first to the Kingsdown Industrial Estate and then to an isolated country road after driving past her turning.

Once at the dark rural spot near a disused hay barn at Stanton Fitzwarren in the middle of the November night she said he got her into the back of the car and sexually assaulted her.

Harris claimed that she came on to him and was enthusiastically telling him what she wanted him to do to her.

And the jury rejected her claims that she froze' and complied to what he was doing through terror clearing Harris of sexual assault and two counts of attempted rape.

However they did find him guilty of kidnap. Harris, formerly of Charlton Close, Penhill, denied all four allegations. After hearing the verdicts Judge Tom Longbotham said "The jury have convicted you on count one, kidnap, which is a very serious charge. "I do not want to raise your hopes in any way to anticipate anything other than a custodial prison sentence. "It is right the court should have a report compiled by a probation officer, a pre-sentence report, before you are sentenced."

Harris had been charged with rape but was cleared by another jury following a trial in April but they could not reach verdicts on the other matters including kidnap.

Harris has been released on bail to live with his father in Merton, Okehampton, Devon, until he is sentenced on November 20. Neither jury was told that on his arrest Harris was found to be in possession of credit cards stolen from another man who had been in his cab.

He pleaded guilty to a separate charge of theft, which took place between October 27 and November 1. Magistrates sentenced Harris to eight weeks in custody for the theft, which he served last year.
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His new home.

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