LEYLAND
Taxi driver who abused autistic boy still working
The abuser: Leyland Avacab driver John O’Sullivan was convicted and fined in 2013 of assaulting an autistic 13-year-old, trussing him up with bungee cords when he took him to his special school.
His taxi licence has twice since been renewed, and he is still on the road
It began with a shocking disclosure: that after two children had been assaulted by taxi drivers in Leyland, a small Lancashire town, the local council had renewed the predators' licences, putting other vulnerable passengers at risk.
Girl A, who was aged just five when she was assaulted sexually, has been left severely traumatised. Her mother says when her daughter caught sight of her abuser back at the wheel of his cab, it triggered nightmares and bed-wetting.
Boy B, a 13-year-old with autism, was physically attacked multiple times by the driver who took him to his special school, and trussed up with elastic bungee cords.
According to his father, he has never recovered: 'Finally a carer witnessed what was happening, and the driver was convicted of assault. But my son didn't speak for five months. He'd been making progress. It immediately went into reverse.'
These bare facts emerged last year, when parts of an inquiry report were leaked. But until now, neither the scale nor the appalling aftermath of the scandal have been made public.
In fact, this newspaper can reveal, South Ribble Borough Council has gone into meltdown. Its former Conservative leader and chief executive have resigned, and its director of human resources has been on indefinite paid leave since Christmas.
Parents of abused children have been yelled at and threatened with legal action. Meanwhile, although the staff responsible for licensing rogue drivers have been reprimanded and are not at work, they continue to draw salaries.
Worse, the whistleblowing officer who tried to tackle the problem claims he has been hounded from his job, along with councillors who supported him. But the council's latest move is to spend thousands on an investigation by an expensive law firm, Weightmans – not to find out what went wrong, but who to blame for last year's leak.
And John O'Sullivan, the driver convicted, fined and ordered to pay compensation for assaulting Boy B, is still a licensed driver with the Leyland firm Avacab. The child's father is now suing Lancashire County Council, which contracted O'Sullivan to take the boy to school and continued to employ him after the attacks were first reported.
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