A taxi-driver lost his hackney licence, and consequently his livelihood, as a result of having been convicted of sexually assaulting a woman in his cab, the Circuit Court has been told.
Mr Adrian Hardiman SC, counsel for the driver, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told Judge Michael White that his client was appealing a District Court conviction and an order to do community work.
The woman concerned said that after the driver had dropped off some of her work colleagues in the early hours of May 16th, 1996, he put his hand on her leg and pushed it up as far as it would go between her thighs. She shouted at him to stop and not to do it again. On arrival at her home, she told him she was reporting him.
Cross-examined by Mr Hardiman, she said she had initially been in the back of the taxi and, after her colleagues had been dropped off, she had climbed into the front over the driver's console between the front passenger and driver's seats. She admitted it was a stupid thing to have done and denied the driver had touched her leg when he had put out his hand to restrain her.
She denied she just wanted to get her own back on him for having sternly ticked her off for her sudden and dangerous manoeuvre in the moving cab.
Mr Hardiman said his client would tell the court her foot had come very close to the gear lever and he had put out his hand and told her to stop "messing".
The case continues.