SHAME SHAME
15 YEARS JAIL FOR SOUTHPORT CABBIE WHO SEXUALLY ABUSED TWO TEENAGE GIRLS 25 YEARS APART
Southport cabbie, Steven Halton, who sexually abused two teenage girls in sickening attacks around 25 years apart has been jailed for 15 years. The Liverpool Echo reports that his first victim, Girl A, came forward after his second victim, Girl B, went to the police and exposed the pervert’s abuse against her. The 58-year-old denied any wrongdoing, which forced both of his victims to relive their ordeals by giving evidence in a harrowing trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
But he was found guilty of ten counts of indecent assault against Girl A and four counts of sexual activity with a child against Girl B.
Judge Brian Cummings, QC, said the factual basis upon which he would sentence Halton was “one of which I am myself sure, having heard the evidence”. The judge said Halton abused Girl A on multiple occasions, touching her breasts, bottom and genitalia over clothing, forcibly kissed her, and on multiple occasions committed sexual offences involving penetration. He said Halton “made her life a misery” in the 1990s.
Judge Cummings said Halton then abused Girl B in the last decade, when he groomed her and kissed her “insis- tently and in a manner that the jury rightly found was sexual”. He said this happened on four occa- sions, the second of which when he also tried to undo her bra and unzip her jeans, and on the third time when he gave her a lift in his taxi, put his hand under her skirt and touched her upper leg and groin area over clothing. Girl B’s dad made a victim statement to the court in which he said finding out what his daughter had been through was “devastating”.
Mr Dillon summarised how Girl B explained Halton took “advantage of her” and left her suffering from “sleep-
JULY 2021
less nights, bad dreams and trauma that is indescribable”. He said: “She went to coun- selling because she went through a stage
of not wanting to be here anymore.” Girl A said she had struggled to live with what happened to her, which led to low self-esteem and a lack of confi- dence, and feared she wouldn’t be believed. The now adult woman said she also felt “guilty” that she hadn’t reported the abuse sooner, because that may have prevented Girl B from being molested. Girl A said she has problems sleeping, described being put through a trial as
“unbearable”, how she felt angry, and had counselling to rebuild her life. The court heard Halton had a small number of previous convictions for dis- honesty dating back to the period from 1985 to 1990.
Judge Cummings said Girl A had been “particularly vulnerable” and told Halton: “It’s a serious aggravating fea- ture of your case that there were multiple offences committed against the victim and there have been very significant lifelong ill effects on her, dealt with in the victim personal state- ment and dealt with also and movingly during her evidence at trial.” He jailed Halton for 15 years and told him to sign on the Sex Offenders Reg- ister for life. Halton must also comply with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and a restraining order indefinitely.
EAST LOTHIAN CABBIE WITH COVID PUT VULNERABLE PASSENGERS LIVES AT RISK
A cabbie put the lives of his passengers at risk after continuing to pick up fares despite being diagnosed with Covid. Gordon Leadbetter, 59, picked up “vulnerable” members of the public after he had tested positive for the killer virus and had been ordered to stay at home and self-isolate. Leadbetter exposed his unaware passengers to the “risk of a height- ened communication of transmission” of Covid while they were in his cab over the festive period last year. The taxi driver appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on 1 June, where he pleaded guilty to culpably and reck- lessly carrying on his business as a taxi driver to the danger of his passengers lives and health between December 17 and 26 last year.
Sheriff Chris Dickson was told the Crown had not prepared a written
narrative regard- ing the case and as a result no details of the of- fence were read out in court. The sheriff accepted the driver’s guilty plea and
deferred sentence for the preparation of reports next month. Leadbetter, from Musselburgh, East Lothian, was granted bail. The charge states the taxi driver car- ried out the course of conduct after testing positive for the Covid 19 virus and ought to have been self-isolating and thus did expose his passengers to immediate risk of transmission of the virus, all to the danger of their lives and health at various locations between December 17 and 26 last year.
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