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Dial-a-Cab
driver George Cato (H80) together with two other DaC
drivers were unprepared for the shock they received at the
end of a case that George was involved with at the City of
London Magistrates Court on 10 August when he had to give
evidence for the prosecution. The story started at around 10.20pm on a January evening when George received an EC5 trip going from 1 Ropemaker Street to Islington. He parked his cab outside the building, completed his advise arrival and sat waiting while his passenger made their way down. Then, whilst George was sitting there quietly, someone George described to Call Sign as resembling the image of a young solicitor rather than a market trader, approached his cab, tapped on his window and just said two words: Kings Cross. George explained that he was waiting for his customer to come down and explained that as it was fairly quiet, he would have no trouble catching a taxi in Moorgate. The passenger then walked away and stopped at the next cab before coming back to George. "You ARE going to take me to Kings Cross," he said rather abruptly. George repeated that he was waiting for someone and was booked. Whilst this was going on, George had been having a conversation via his Bluetooth with another Dial-a-Cab driver, Ricky Ranns (H81), who was also waiting for his passenger in the City. Suddenly the man turned violent and try to rip the plastic rain strip off from above George’s door and then grabbed and tried to pull off the TX1’s electric wing mirror. "I had no choice but to get out and try to stop him," said George, "while in the meantime Ricky was listening to everything that’s going on and said that he would call the police." The man seemed to come to his senses and walked away before coming back and grabbing George’s arm and twisting it against the joint. While this was taking place, yet another DaC driver was sitting behind. Chris Field (H06) had seen what was happening from his cab, got out and pulled the man away from George. He then walked off but returned yet again saying aloud: "You are going to take me… you ARE!" We fought him off but he returned yet again and tried to bend my arm. At the same time, another male turned up and showed the attacker his police warrant card, which turned him from an aggressor to a lamb, claiming in a calm voice that he had done nothing! It turned out that the warranted officer was a plain clothed policeman who was off duty and was passing by. Almost simultaneously, two uniformed officers were responding to the call from Ricky Ranns. They began speaking to Chris Field while George sat in the back of his cab feeling – as he put it – extremely riled up. Then the police went to George and told him that they were waiting for "their boss" to turn up – the Chief Inspector. George was baffled as to why such a high priority had |
DAC’S GEORGE AND THE AMAZING COURT DECISION! |
|
 George Cato
been given to what was only a minor assault –
albeit unpleasant. |
actually
waiting for my passenger at that time. The prosecution read
it first and claimed it showed undoubted proof that I was
telling the truth. When the defence read it her jaw dropped,
but then she suddenly claimed that under a particular act
the evidence was inadmissible! Perhaps I should have given
the printout in earlier, but it never occurred to me that I
would be accused of lying." "The defence then repeated what we knew she’d say – that I refused to take him but that he never touched me and that I actually assaulted him! Then she made a strange statement. She said I had only brought the action because I knew that my attacker was a serving policeman and that the City of London police egged him on to prosecute! I said I knew nothing about it – which I didn’t. It transpired that he was actually in the rapid response firearms unit!" "They then put the CCTV on, but it played in a series of photos that showed a completely different story because of the angle, to that which had actually happened. Afterwards I realised that I should have said that if he was a policeman, then why did he not arrest me? I knew it was because he was obviously drunk, but sadly, it was too late." "Then Chris Field came to the stand and the defence accused him of saying what he saw purely because it was to help another cab driver. There was then a parade of seven police witnesses all speaking against the accused. They all said he was intoxicated beyond what was considered reasonable. The two police that turned up at first then followed them in, whilst amazingly, a Detective Sergeant followed them to the stand! I was stunned. I hadn’t remembered speaking to a Detective Sergeant! But the Detective said under oath that the accused had phoned him up and tried to pervert the course of justice by getting him to drop the case. He was about to read from his notebook when the defence again claimed that under the same act this evidence was not admissible!" The three drivers went home and decided that to return for the second day would be pointless and sure enough in mid-afternoon, the Court rang to say he had been found not guilty. "To call it a travesty of justice would be an understatement," said George, "we had 11 witnesses against his none, yet it was a not guilty. The court also said that he should have been arrested in the first instance rather than just have his details taken. That contributed to the decision, but quite honestly, my faith in lay magistrates is now nil. I was warned before that it would happen, but refused to accept it. Now my view has changed…" |
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