TERROR TIMES
FEMALE CABBIE LEFT BADLY SHAKEN AFTER THREATENED WITH KNIFE DURING BELFAST ROBBERY
A female taxi driver has been left badly shaken after being robbed at knifepoint in north Belfast during the early hours. Police are investigating the report of the robbery in the Shore Road area on Saturday August 5. “It was reported that two men flagged down a taxi in the Clareglen/Ballysillan Park area of
Belfast at around 3.30am on Saturday morning and asked to be taken to the Shore Road,” said a PSNI spokesperson. “When they
arrived at their
destination, in the Seamount area of the Shore Road, one of the men threatened the female cabbie with a knife and demanded money.
“A sum of money was handed over and the two men then made off on foot. “The taxi driver was not injured but was left badly shaken.” An investigation is underway and anyone with any information is asked to call detectives at Musgrave 101, quoting reference number 1719 07/08/23.
ABINGDON TAXI DRIVER VICTIM OF A BRUTAL ATTACK WHICH LEFT “BLOOD EVERYWHERE”
A long-serving taxi driver has warned other cabbies to “always be alert” after he was the victim of a brutal attack which left “blood everywhere.” Self-employed taxi driver Colin Dobson, who works primarily in Abingdon and Wantage, was sat in his cab near a pedestrian crossing in Kidlington, when a man approached his car, opened the door and punched him in the face. The courageous cabbie said: “I noticed the perpetrator some time before the attack. “I and four or five other drivers hadn’t let him cut into the lane, so he overtook the entire stream of traffic on the wrong side of the road.
“He then stopped at the pedestrian crossing and got out of the vehicle. I sat there, he walked up to my car, opened the door, leaned in as if he was going to kiss me, said I should have let him in, then punched me in the face. “There were no swear words, no verbal abuse. He did the whole
PHTM SEPTEMBER 2023
thing very calmly. There was a lot of blood. There was blood everywhere.” The taxi driver of 14 years, from Oxford, said usually he would lock his car doors if approached, but because he was in a new car when the attack happened, wasn’t too sure how to lock them. Mr Dobson will have to undergo expensive dental work because of the assault.
He said: “I’m pretty upset. There was no choice but to take the tooth out, because it was split down the middle. “The dentist said he’d never seen anything like it, the amount of
force the guy hit me with. “It’s cost me £300 for the emergency treatment, which is just a cap to stop the pain, but it will cost me £3,000 for an implant.” Mr Dobson said he took the weekend off following the attack, which took place at around 3.30pm on Friday, August 11. He said: “If you’re a self-employed taxi driver you rely on driving jobs for income, so I had no choice but to get back in the car. “I took some time off to recover, and now I’m back serving the people of Oxfordshire.” Having picked up from the Abingdon taxi rank before going independent, Mr Dobson has seen his fair share of antisocial behaviour.
He said: “Before this attack nothing had happened to me personally, but I’ve witnessed it multiple times with other drivers over the years. “It’s a very high-risk occupation, especially between 1am and 5am when people are frequently drunk.”
63
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80
