JUST DESSERTS
19 MONTHS’ JAIL FOR MAN WHO ATTACKED BRADFORD CABBIE AND NINE POLICE OFFICERS
A man has been jailed for 19 months for a drunken and drug-fuelled string of assaults that included attacking a Bradford taxi driver and nine of the city’s police officers. Jonathon Withey committed four sets of offences in nine months, spitting at the height of the coronavirus pandemic and punching and kicking his victims while on prison licence and on bail. Recorder Paul Reid said 29-year-old Withey had an appalling record for dis- honesty and violence and had shown “a complete inability to control his behaviour.” Withey, from Bradford, was on licence when the police went to arrest him at Bradford Royal Infirmary last March. Bradford Crown Court recently heard that he faked “a medical episode” at the hospital when they arrived. He spat at an officer and while he was trying to avoid the spittle, he bit him hard on the
thumb, breaking the skin and caus- ing a nasty wound that bled. He was held in cus- tody until July 4 and next came to the police’s atten- tion after his release on bail. They were called to a violent incident in Kirkgate, Shipley, on August 8, the court heard. Withey and another man had punched and kicked a taxi driver in a dispute over payment of the fare. A passer-by who intervened to help the cabbie was also set upon and hit and kicked. After he was arrested, Withey tripped up two officers at the police station as he was being taken to the cells. Both banged their heads when they fell and one received a cut elbow.
On November 20, the police were called to a report of a man being drunk and disorderly in Bradford city centre. The officers approached Withey on the street and he was drunk and abusive to them. He went on to assault four more officers, spitting at two of them and kicking the other two. He then spat all over the walls of his holding cell. Withey was arrested again on Christmas Eve after reports that he was drunk and offering to fight people in Bradford. He was in breach of a court curfew order while on bail. He was handcuffed when he assaulted another police officer, and he was in possession of cocaine. Withey pleaded guilty to nine offences of assaulting a police officer as an emergency worker by beating them; two offences of common assault; criminal damage and possession of cannabis and cocaine.
DERBY THUG WHO PUNCHED CABBIE OVER 20P EXTRA ON HIS FARE GIVEN SUSPENDED SENTENCE
A drunken thug punched a taxi driver in the mouth after being charged just 20p over what he thought the fare should be. The Derby Telegraph reports that Callum Peake struck the victim with such force the cabbie had one of his front teeth knocked out. A court heard how at the time the defendant, 25, was in “an ongoing and problematic relationship with his partner” which was “exacerbated by his excessive alcohol intake”. And after being arrested then released on bail for that, Peake bit a police officer when he was in custody on a separate matter. Jailing him for 29 weeks, suspended for 18 months, Recorder David Richards said: “I don’t pretend to have any
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experience in the life you have led to date. You have for periods of time lived in a tent in Derby. “Taxi drivers have a difficult and dangerous job. They pick people up who, by and large, are grateful for the lift and the service they provide. “But every now and again they get a customer that is difficult and some- times a customer who assaults them and you assaulted this driver. “You smacked (the taxi driver) in the face and he lost a tooth. “I’m taking a chance on you.” Lauren Fisher, prosecuting at Derby Crown Court sitting at Mansfield Magis- trates’ Court, said the assault on the cabbie happened in Derby in July 2019. She said the taxi driver picked up Peake and three other people and an
argument about the taxi fare erupted. Miss Fisher said: “It was supposed to be £9 but was £9.20. “The defendant handed over a £10 note and the driver offered the 80p change which Mr Peake slapped out of his hand.
“He got out of the car and continued to argue with (the driver) through the open window, challenging him to a fight. “The defendant then punched the driver to the face connecting with his mouth. “As a result he lost a front tooth and received a cut to his bottom lip.” Peake, who has 10 convictions for 15 offences to his name, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assaulting an emergency worker.
MARCH 2022
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