A taxi driver employed by Devon County Council allegedly groped a vulnerable teenaged girl as he took her from her supported accommodation to a special school.


Kevin Satterley took the girl from her home to a special needs school in Devon every weekday for seven weeks until she complained to carers she had been abused during the journeys.

The 18-year-old says he showed her pornographic films on a portable DVD player of adults having sex and went on to touch her breasts and private parts.


A teaching assistant at her special school had already reported concerns over Satterley’s behaviour after seeing him pat the girl on the bottom as he escorted her into his taxi, Exeter Crown Court was told.


Satterley, aged 48, of Redburn Road, Paignton, denies four offences of sexual assault by touching.
Mr Lee Bremridge, prosecuting, said the offences happened in July last year when the girl was living in semi-independent supported accommodation.


She was a student at a special needs school and Devon County Council organised and paid for a taxi to take her to and from school each day.


He said the girl sat in the front seat and the police were called in when she complained to carers that Satterley was flirting with her and touching her over her clothing during the 40 minute journeys.
He said the girl told carers he had shown her pornographic videos before touching her and police later recovered a portable DVD with an adult film from the car.


He said the girl’s condition meant her behaviour was more like that of a child of eight to 12 and vocabulary was that of a six-year-old but her outward appearance and presentation were normal.
He said:”Although she can present as a street wise teenager she is in fact a young woman who understands less than she may be given credit for and needs constant help and support.”


He passed the jury an account which she had written for carers in big childish handwriting.
It said:”It was every day and made me watch the portable DVD player. He touched me on my boobs and between my legs and every day he did not stop I asked him to stop.”


Mr Bremridge said the girl told police and carers Satterley flirted with her during the journeys and this progressed to watching DVDs and touching in the weeks before she reported it.


He said the girl’s story was supported by the discovery of the portable DVD player in the car and concerns raised by a receptionist at the school who was worried about the way he patted the girl’s bottom as they walked to the car.


Satterley denied touching the girl or showing her the DVD but said she may have seen him watching it when he was waiting to pick her up.


Mr Bremridge said: "The prosecution case is that he took advantage of his position of trust. He took advantage of her and sexually assaulted her in the way she has described.”


Read more: http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Devon-County-Council-taxi-driver-denies-abusing/story-23055704-detail/story.html?#ixzz3FUC7QSDz
-----------------------------------------------------------------


Newcastle City Council catch out taxi drivers caught working illegally in Newcastle and refusing to take customers on short journeys

Rogue taxi drivers have been caught flouting licensing laws in a council sting.

Dozens of cabbies have been caught out by officials since they launched a city wide crackdown at the beginning of summer.

Today Newcastle City Council has named its worst offenders and wants to assure residents, and particularly students, they have a firm eye on any illegal activity.

Jonathan Bryce, the council’s regulatory licencing manager, said: "These prosecutions show the council’s commitment to pursuing action against anyone who breaks the law.

"We take enforcement very seriously and our role is to ensure that the trade operates legally and to the high standards expected."

In the past few months the council has found an increasing number of Hackney Carriage taxi drivers coming to work in Newcastle whose vehicles are registered to work in Northumberland and Durham.

This means customers are at risk of being picked up in uninsured cars as the vehicle’s haven’t been checked by Newcastle City Council.

Students and residents travelling very short distances, for example from Collingwood Street to Jesmond, have also found that taxi drivers have refused to take them because of the low fares, despite it being illegal to turn down a job.

Others have been ripped off, and have complained to the council that the taxi driver has turned off the metre and instead charged their own fee, like taxi driver Arafath Habib Riyad of Swaledale Gardens, Newcastle.

"We would also like to remind the travelling public that it is an offence for a Hackney Carriage driver to refuse a fare that starts and finishes in Newcastle," said the spokesman.

"It is also an offence for such a driver not to use the fitted meter or to charge more than the legal tariff of fares displayed in the licensed vehicle."

One taxi driver prosecuted by the council, Adil Mohammed, was caught when he picked up a team of council officers in a car not legally registered to be driven in Newcastle. Following a hearing at Newcastle Magistrates Court he was fined £55 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £100.

Stuart Burns, of Benwell Grange Terrace, had carried out a number of journeys without a valid taxi licence.

The council have said that those who have declined fares of just £3 or £4 to take people home after night out in town have gone on to face fines of up to £300.

So far 700 vehicles and drivers have been stopped and checked by the licensing authority at Newcastle City Council alongside Northumbria Police to make sure that driver standards are maintained in the last year.

The council have also written to both Newcastle University and Northumbria University to advise students how to stay safe while using taxis in the city and to report any problems to the council.
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/rogue-taxi-drivers-named-shamed-7892376?
------------------------------------------
WARRINGTON

Police appeal over taxi sexual assault


POLICE are appealing for information after a man claiming to be a taxi driver sexually assaulted an 18-year-old passenger.


The victim and two friends were picked up by a taxi outside the Natwest bank in Warrington town centre at around 5.30am on Saturday.


The driver told one of the girls she would need to travel in the front seat with him while her friends sat in the back.


During the journey to a friend’s house in the Bewsey area, the driver asked the girl if he could go into the address and was told no.


A spokesman added: "The driver has allegedly been suggestive in his behaviour during the journey to the address, when they arrived the girl was alone in the taxi momentarily while her friends went into the house at which point it is alleged the driver has sexually assaulted her.


"At this point the girl has left the car and told her friends what has happened and the police were notified."


The driver is described as an Asian man, about 35-years-old, around 5ft 8ins tall, slim build with short dark hair and a trimmed goatee beard and wearing dark clothing.


The car is described as white and possibly a Peugot.

http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/11518920._/?