Man faces jail over racist taxi incident(St Albans)

Man faces jail over racist taxi incident

RACIALLY abusing a taxi driver and punching a hole through the partition window of his cab could land a teenager in prison.

Joseph Hilley, aged 19, of Puddingstone Drive, St Albans, pleaded guilty at the city's magistrates court on Thursday to racially aggravated criminal damage and causing harassment, alarm and distress. He was bailed until later this month.

Rosanne Smith, prosecuting, said Hilley got a taxi at the rank in St Peter's Street on the evening of October 5. He had agreed on a fare of £4 to £6 with the driver, Mr Bukhara but, after they set off, Hilley became abusive saying: "You are going to rip me off, you Pakis always rip people off."

He began punching the safety glass until he had smashed through it, then put his head through still shouting racial abuse. Mr Bukhara was frightened and asked Hilley to get out but he refused.

When the taxi reached Victoria Street, the driver pulled up next to two police constables who were on patrol and told them what happened.

They saw that the driver was injured and was sitting in shards of glass from the broken window. They tried to arrest Hilley but he resisted violently shouting further racial abuse and swearing at the police.

The constables called for back-up and when Pc Islam arrived on the scene, Hilley began racially abusing him.

Hilley, whose eyes were glazed, had to be wrestled to the ground before being arrested. He had been on a conditional discharge at the time of the offence.

Chairman of the bench Judy Munton warned Hilley, who has previous convictions for threatening and abusive behaviour and has served custodial sentences, that he could face jail.