JUST DESERTS
8 MONTHS’ JAIL FOR RACIST THUG WHO RAINED PUNCHES ON BURTON CABBIE WHILST DRIVING
A thug has been jailed after raining down a “flurry of punches” in a racist attack on a taxi driver. Aaron Sweeney, 32, from Burton, used vile racist language as he hit the driver in the face and neck on multiple occasions while his victim was still driving, a court has heard. He was saying: ‘I will kill you now’ and, ‘I will bash your face in, you **** b******, which is where the racially aggravated part of the charge comes from.” Sweeney had become irate after the driver told him there would be a £50 cleaning fee to pay when a woman passenger was sick in the
car after a night out in Burton on November 28, 2021. The victim managed to stop and Sweeney got out, before punching him again and running off. Sweeney later made an attempt to burn his clothing. The victim was left with blurry vision, headaches and injuries to his neck, face and forearm where he had been protecting himself against Sweeney. Sweeney appeared at Stafford Crown Court where he pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Despite pleas from his barrister,
Sweeney was jailed for eight months after the court was told he has 29 convictions for 60 offences. In an impact statement read out to the court, the victim said: “In my left eye there is blurry vision. My jaw and neck
ache, I have
headaches. The back of my neck is painful. This has caused me emotional and mental distress.” The taxi driver said he enjoyed his job but now feels concerned. Judge Jonathan Gosling told Sweeney: “Any attack on a taxi driver in which he suffered injuries like that can only be an immediate jail sentence.”
66 MONTHS’ JAIL FOR PETERBOROUGH MAN WHO HIT CABBIE WITH HAMMER IN ROAD RAGE ATTACK
A Peterborough man left a taxi driver with a broken arm after launching a ‘vicious’ road rage attack with a hammer. Sam Claydon’s victim said he ‘thought it was the end’ as Claydon swung the hammer at his head in August 2020. Following the assault, Claydon, 39, went on the run, but was eventually arrested. He was jailed for five and a half years on 6 October, at Cambridge Crown Court, with Judge Jonathan Seely describing the attack as ‘vicious and sustained.’ Duncan O’Donnell, prosecuting said the incident happened in Cambridge on August 14. He said: “The cabbie was on his way to pick up a fare and spotted a silver Vauxhall Corsa speeding down the road, driven by the
14
defendant. “The victim stopped at traffic lights, with
the defendant
sounding his horn behind him. As the victim pulled away, the defendant pulled alongside him, forcing him to stop. “Claydon got out of his car, and marched up to the side of the victim’s car. He was wielding a claw hammer – and not a small one.” Claydon used the hammer to smash the car’s wing mirror, before aiming a blow at the victim’s head which the cabbie blocked with his arm. Claydon then struck the car again, before aiming another blow at the driver’s head – which was also blocked by his arm. “Claydon aimed another strike at
the driver, but he was able to disarm the attacker, and drive off. A statement from the victim was read to the court, in which he said he feared he was going to die in the attack. He said: “The day it happened, I thought it was the end. I believed he would have killed me if I hadn’t got away.” He said he was still struggling to sleep, as he would see Claydon ‘coming at him with a hammer.’ Sentencing, Judge Seely told Claydon: “This was a vicious, sustained assault on a taxi driver in an unprovoked road rage incident in which you were the instigator and aggressor from first to last.” Claydon pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent, criminal damage and possession of an offensive weapon at a previous hearing.
NOVEMBER 2022 PHTM
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