IN THE NEWS
ISLE OF WIGHT CABBIE ACCUSED OF MULTIPLE RAPES RELEASED AS AN INNOCENT MAN
An Isle of Wight cabbie who says he was wrongfully accused of raping a number of women walked free from court on Monday 4 April as a result of the case against him being dismissed, with the CPS dropping all charges against him. The Island Echo reports that Frankie Vecsei, 26, was charged in October last year with nine counts of rape against six women across the Isle of Wight, with the alleged offences taking place between 2013 and 2021. He appeared before magistrates and was remanded in custody where he has remained since.
The former taxi driver from Bembridge, has always protested his innocence and had pleaded not guilty to the rape charges when he appeared by video link from HMP Isle of Wight in Novem- ber.
Mr Vecsei appeared at Portsmouth Crown Court where the case col- lapsed, with the Judge recording a formal not guilty verdict. He was told that the charges against him had been dropped and he was free to go – now as an innocent man and he was released. The CPSoffered no evidence against Mr Vecsei as a result of investigations
revealing ‘collusion’, the court heard. A total of ten mobile devices had been seized and examined and multiple communications between the alleged victims were discovered. However, Hampshire Constabulary has confirmed that there is currently no criminal investigation born out of this shocking development. A spokesperson for the CPS has told Island Echo: “We have a duty to keep all of our cases under review. “After review, in accordance with our legal test, we concluded there was no longer a realistic prospect of convic- tion and ended this case.”
CABBIE WHO KILLED CYCLIST IN DIDCOT CRASH GETS SUSPENDED SENTENCE
A ‘loving’ cyclist who was knocked off his bike by a cabbie in the early hours died a fortnight after the crash. The Oxford Mail reports that Daniel O’Donnell, 28, claimed not to have seen 68-year-old Robert Mallinson before knocking him down at a Didcot crossroads on August 8, 2020. Oxford Crown Court heard that O’Donnell was approaching Lydalls Road from Haydon Road shortly after midnight, making his way from Didcot railway station to pick up a fare. Mr Mallinson, on his way home from seeing friends, was cycling the correct way down one-way Lydalls Road. His bike was fitted with front and rear lights and the two-wheeler had reflectors. The Go Green Taxis liveried Toyota Prius slowed to 14mph as it approached the junction but appeared to speed up as it struck the bicycle side-on.
O’Donnell remained at the scene, with bystanders saying he had been
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‘shaking like a leaf’. His victim was taken to hospital. Despite the efforts of medics on the intensive care unit at the John Radcliffe, his condition worsened and he died on August 23. In a victim personal statement read to Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday after- noon, Mr Mallinson’s wife Janet said of her recently-retired husband: “He was a wonderful, loving, caring man. [O’Donnell] has taken away the love of my life, my soulmate, the man I wanted to grow old with.” Mr Mallinson’s brother, John, described his older sibling as having been ‘need- lessly killed’. The defendant had showed a ‘complete disregard’ for his brother’s ‘physical vulnerability on a bicycle’. Sentencing him to 10 months’ imprison- ment suspended for two years, Judge Ian Pringle QC said O’Donnell ‘simply never saw’ Mr Mallinson. “As a taxi driver and someone familiar with that road you should have been
concentrating hard to your right, looking out not just for headlights but for any other road users,” he said. He suspended the sentence, noting the defendant had no previous convic- tions, would ‘seriously struggle’ in prison, had strong personal mitigation and there was a realistic prospect of him being rehabilitated.
Michael Goold, mitigating, said his client was ‘deeply, deeply remorseful’ about what had happened. However, he asked the judge to consider his client’s culpability in the context of the crash, pointing to the fact Mr Mallinson had not been wearing reflective clothing or using flashing lights. He suggested the cyclist was ‘very difficult to see’. O’Donnell, from Appleford, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing death by careless driving. Judge Pringle banned him from driving for two years and ordered he pass an extended retest.
MAY 2022
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