DISGRACE TO OUR TRADE


WIGAN TAXI DRIVER USED WIFE TO LURE GIRLS FOR SEX ATTACKS


A taxi driver who posed as an amateur photographer to lure teenage girls to his house before drug- ging and sexually abusing them relied on the help of his wife to gain their trust. According to the Daily Telegraph, Phillip Brindle targeted vul- nerable girls for nearly a decade throughout the 1990s, convincing them to strip naked on the pretext of launching their modelling careers.


Once he had drugged them he would often film the abuse he meted out and was seen on the footage checking their eyelids to make sure they


were unconscious. On at least one occa- sion, he raped a victim.


His wife, Victoria, was key in helping the girls to pose, assisting in the drugging and help- ing move the limp bodies so they could be filmed.


She died two years ago from deep vein thrombosis before their “sex obsessed” crimes were uncov- ered.


Last month, Brindle, a 54-year-old father of two, was jailed for life and will serve a mini- mum of 11 years as well as being placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.


Judge Mark Brown described the defen-


dant as a “sexual deviant”.


The case could not be reported until 22 Octo- ber as Brindle, from Laddock in Cornwall, faced other charges related to possession of indecent images of children that will now lie on file.


The attacks had all taken place at the home he shared with his wife in Wigan, and police managed to trace five of the women involved, although he had filmed at least three more.


Brindle was convicted of two counts of rape and six indecent assaults after a trial at Liverpool Crown Court.


STIRLING DRIVER ACCUSED OF LYING OVER TEENAGER’S ROAD DEATH


A taxi driver has appeared in court charged with wasting police time for lying that a teenager killed in a tragic accident had been murdered. STV News reports that John Ross is alleged to have made false allegations to detec- tives investigating the final hours of Dean Geary, 19, who, as reported in PHTM, was found dead with head injuries on a country road near Drymen, in west Stirlingshire in February.


Mr Geary had been out in Glasgow city centre on the night before his death on February 7. He was found later on the A811 Drymen-Gar- tocharn road, around


INJURED BOY DUMPED BY CRUEL OXFORD CABBIE AFTER COLLISION WITH TAXI


A taxi driver ditched a screaming schoolboy on the side of the road with a broken ankle after a collision with his cab.


Joe Collins, 15, said the taxi driver - now being hunted by police - had initially given him a lift after the crash in Head- ington, Oxford, but then told him to get out half- a-mile from home. Joe, at home recover- ing from his broken ankle, said he had to crawl home before he could get any treat- ment.


The collision happened at about 1.30pm on Monday 4 October in Grays Road, on the cor- ner with Gipsy Lane. Joe told the Oxford Mail: “I’d finished school for the day and was walking home. I know I looked both ways, I always do because I do a lot of BMX riding and I know how fast traffic can go. “The cab came speed- ing out of nowhere


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Joe Collins at home with his broken ankle Photo courtesy of Marc West, Oxford Mail


and ran me over with both sets of wheels. I had to wave at him to get him to stop and help.


“When he did he just kept screaming at me ‘it’s your fault, it’s your fault’.


“I remember begging him to take me home and I told him my mum would give him the money for the fare.” But instead of taking Joe to his Ambleside Drive home, he said the driver ordered him out in Headley Way.


The Cheney School pupil said he was left in “unbelievable pain”. Surgeons have insert- ed metal rods to support his ankle and he will suffer perma- nent arthritis.


The youngster said he had to hop, crawl and slide home.


His mum Claire Collins, 42, said: “I just can’t believe someone would do this. He was obviously seriously injured. His ankle was completely mis- shapen. I just hope if


anyone saw some- thing, anything, they will come forward. “I would ask the taxi firms to check their vehicles too. There must be some dam- age to the cab.” Joe now faces more than three months in a cast, during which he will be unable to ride his BMX bike, which he has just finished building himself. Pc Gary Froud said: “The taxi driver left the boy, who was scream- ing in agony, at the side of the road rather than taking him home or to hospital. I am very keen to trace the driver and would urge him, or anyone who witnessed the collision or the boy being left on Headley Way, contact me.”


to


The driver is described as Asian and in his late 20s or early 30s. Call PC Froud on 08458 505505 or Crimestop- pers anonymously on 0800 555111.


eight miles from his home in Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire. He was lying on his back with his hands in his pockets and a post-mortem revealed he had suffered “seri- ous head injuries”. Police at first thought he might have been the victim of an assault or a hit-and-run, and a team of detectives from two police forces spoke to taxi drivers and members of the public in a bid for infor- mation.


After an extensive probe, Central Scot- land Police said that Mr Geary died as a result of an accidental collision with a car. Ross, 58, from Bishop- briggs, is alleged to


have made a series of false allegations to police three days after Mr Geary was killed - lying that he had con- veyed Mr Geary from Glasgow to the Dry- men area along with two other men, whom he falsely claimed, then murdered the teenager and took his wallet and mobile phone.


During a two-minute appearance at Stirling Sheriff Court, Ross spoke only to confirm his name.


He faces a single charge of wasting police time and ren- dering the public liable to unjustified suspi- cion of murder, as a result of his false claims.


DUNDEE CABBIE MADE UP ROBBERY CLAIM


A taxi driver lied to police that he had been the victim of a robbery in Camper- down Park, Dundee Sheriff Court heard last month.


The Dundee Evening Telegraph reports that Douglas Leitch, 54, admitted wasting police time between June 10 and 11 by making the false claim and so leaving mem- bers of the public liable to be suspected and accused of robbery. The court heard a large number of police hours had been wast- ed by Leitch’s lie and the bill was in excess of £4,200.


Douglas Leitch was a “rookie” taxi driver who had only been working for the 203020 taxi firm for five weeks when he reported he had been assaulted by knife- wielding passengers in his cab.


Leitch, who was back on the road 24 hours


after the fantasy assault, claimed he had been attacked by three men whom he had picked up in Union Street at midnight. He told police he’d taken them within 100 yards of the entrance to Camperdown Park when they pounced, one holding the blade of a knife against his throat.


Leitch said his attack- ers had robbed him of all his money and left him badly shaken before fleeing on foot. He even went as far as giving police a description of the men. His account of the ficti- tious attack was convincing enough to prompt his boss, Davie Young, to offer a “sub- stantial” reward if the muggers were brought to justice. Tayside Police officers analysed CCTV footage of the route taken by the taxi and launched an appeal for witnesses.


PHTM NOVEMBER 2010


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