SHAME SHAME
SIX YEARS’ JAIL FOR LIVERPOOL PH DRIVER WHO TRAFFICKED COCAINE AND HEROIN ABROAD
A private hire driver organised the trafficking of cocaine and heroin to the Netherlands after deciding the UK’s lockdown measures made it too risky for him to operate here. But the Liverpoool Echo reports that James Birch was still caught out by police after messages detailing his criminal activity were found on the hacked Encrochat messaging service. The 35 year old used the the encrypted messaging service to organise the movement of large amounts of drugs throughout 2020. Birch was working as a private hire driver and organising for the transport of Class A drugs within the UK. However, messages sent by him that year on Encrochat reveal he considered it was too “risky” to continue to
transport and sup- ply drugs locally as a result of the national lockdown. He then tried to take a self-imposed furlough instead of returning to work as a PH driver. Yet Birch contin- ued to be involved in the supply of drugs with others by facilitating arrangements for the supply of 10-20kgs of heroin from one associate in Holland to another. He recorded payments and cash collected from the drugs he supplied in his messages, with one totalling £169,624 in May 2020.
On December 15 last year, officers con- ducted a search of a property and arrested Birch on suspicion of conspir- acy to supply controlled Class A drugs after they seized five mobile phones. Detective Inspector Paul McVeigh of Merseyside Police said: “He clearly felt that the risk of his crimes being detected by police was too great here in Liver- pool, but his attempts to evade justice by taking furlough and organising the supply of drugs further afield were also foiled, and that is a testament to the determination of officers here in Merseyside as well as other law enforcement agencies. Birch from Tuebrook, Liverpool was jailed for six years for money launder- ing and assisting or inducing the commission of an offence abroad.
CLYDEBANK CABBIE JAILED FOR SEVEN YEARS FOR RAPING TWO WOMEN
A rapist who left a victim handcuffed to a bed then went to play poker has been jailed for seven years. According to the Glasgow Times, Richard McKillop repeatedly preyed on the woman who he had earlier met on a dating site. The 57-year-old taxi driver later went on to attack a second woman he was in a relationship with. McKillop was sentenced on Friday 11 February, at the High Court in Glasgow having earlier been convicted of raping both victims between 2011 and 2019. Lady Stacey told him: “You abused two women, both partners at the time, one after the other. They should have been able to look to you for love and support.” McKillop, of Clydebank, West Dunbar- tonshire, was also put on the sex offenders list. Before being lead to the cells, he shout- ed towards the judge: “I have never
MARCH 2022
been violent towards anyone in my life.” Prosecutors stated the first woman suffered at a flat in Clydebank. The relationship had gone well until she noticed a change in McKillop which would often be after he had played poker.
McKillop had told her that if there was “no sex” then she should “f*** off”. She told the trial: “It was his way or no way.” The woman recalled an incident when she found herself alone in the flat. She said: “I woke up one morning hand- cuffed to the bed. No one was in sight. When he returned, he thought it was funny.” The court heard he had earlier walked out and left her to play poker. The victim did not know for definite what had happened, but she suspected she had been raped while asleep. The trial heard how McKillop had used
handcuffs on the woman at other times.
In his closing speech, prosecutor Alan Mackay said: “This was not role play or consensual sex. It was rape.” The second victim described how McKillop had left her feeling like “a w***e” at a house in Johnstone, Renfrewshire and the Clydebank flat. They had also earlier met online. She was hit with a belt eight times and only carried out a sex act in fear of being hit again. Prosecutor Mr MacKay said: “This is a man who does not and cannot appreci- ate what these women have gone through.” McKillop refuted the accusations appearing to insist he was “some sort of victim” as the allegations apparently had an effect on his taxi licence. His QC John Scullion said: “He con- tinues to deny these offences.”
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