Northumbria

A woman cab driver suffered a terrifying sexual assault at the wheel of her car by a drunken passenger.

Cabbie Gillian Patten had to fight off the man with all her strength after he moved into the front seat and tried to push his head into her crotch.

Using vile sexual language, the man forced himself onto the mum-of-two repeatedly until she managed to struggle free, smashing his head off the rear view mirror in the process.

But when Northumbria Police sent a lone female police officer to deal with the incident at Shields Road in Byker and Gillian saw that he was let go just minutes later, she made an official complaint about the force.

Gillian, who lives in West Denton with her daughter, said: “He just lunged at me and tried to touch me. I had to physically throw him off me.

“He’d got out of the vehicle to get money out of his pocket and then got back in to pay me and he said, ‘Can I have a kiss?’.

“I said, ‘I don’t kiss customers’. Then he went for my crotch.

“I had to push him off twice but he just lunged back on top of me. I was shouting at him, ‘Get out of my car’, but he wouldn’t so I dialled 999.”

She has now officially complained to Northumbria Police and the Independent Police Complaints Commission over the force’s handling of the incident on the night, and over the fact it took 24 hours before someone could take down her statement.

She said: “When he left the car I watched everything. He went into Weatherspoons on Shields Road but was escorted out by staff. That’s when the female police officer arrived by herself which I thought didn’t make sense. She just told me to get into my car and she would contact me. She went over the road to speak to him. Then I just saw him walking off up the road. What if he’d gone on to do something to someone else?”

Police have since arrested a 40-year-old man on suspicion of sexual assault who has been bailed pending further enquiries.

Gillian, who has worked for LA Taxis for a decade said she has now lost faith in the police after the way they dealt with her 999 call.

“I’ve been driving taxis for years and you do get people saying things but that was the most vulnerable I’ve ever felt in my own car in 10 years of driving,” said Gillian, who has waived her right to anonymity to speak to the Chronicle.

She was further enraged by the ordeal after months of cooperation with the police with their Operation Sanctuary campaign to safeguard women in the city at risk of sexual violence.

“Taxi drivers across Newcastle have been pulled over constantly over Operation Sanctuary but what about my safety? At that moment, was I not a vulnerable female?” she said.

The attack happened at around 10.10pm, on Thursday May 1 after Gillian had picked up the man from a bar in Newcastle City Centre.

He had been in the back seat of her vehicle but when they pulled up on Shields Road in got out to retrieve some money and then got back in the front seat to pay her.

A spokesperson for Northumbria Police said: “Police have spoken to the victim to discuss her concerns about the investigation and how it has been handled.

“Officers have now taken a statement and will be carrying out further enquiries to establish the full circumstances of this incident.

“If anyone is dissatisfied with how Northumbria Police has handled an incident they were involved in they can seek recourse through our complaints procedure in which any complaint is fully investigated.”

The Independent Police Complaints Commission have been in touch with Gillian to take a statement and are in the process of deciding whether to uphold the complaint.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/west-denton-female-taxi-driver-7173248
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