Accused cabbie says he acts as agony aunt (From Swindon Advertiser)

Accused cabbie says he acts as agony aunt

8:59am Friday 6th October 2006 in News By Gareth Bethell

TAXI driver Tim Harris told a jury he did nothing wrong the night he is accused of sexually assaulting a teenage passenger.

The 38-year-old said that the girl had wanted to go with him when he drove her out into the country before they got on to the back seat of his cab.

And he said she had agreed to go for a drive before he clocked off work by turning off his GPS tracking device.

Adam Vaitilingam, prosecuting, cross-examined the cabbie about what happened on the evening of November 4 last year when he picked up the girl in Penhill.

He said Harris must be mistaken when he claimed to have turned off the GPS system in his taxi close to the turning for the girl's Stratton home.

Instead he said the evidence showed the system was almost certainly turned off immediately after she got in his car.

Mr Vaitilingam said it was accepted evidence that Harris pressed the button in his cab to take the fare at 10.57pm and 36 seconds.

That was before he had arrived at the pick-up point and he turned off the GPS just four minutes later.

In the interim he had waited for his passengers and when they didn't turn up decided to pick up the victim instead.

Harris accepted he could not have turned the GPS off after the girl agreed to go for a drive but said he could not remember switching it off.

Mr Vaitilingam said: "You took advantage of her. You fancied her."

Harris replied: "I fancied her but I didn't take advantage."

He said he spoke to a lot of clients in his taxi.

"I have sat outside people's houses for 45 minutes while they talk," he said.

"It is part of a cabbie's job, you are like an agony aunt sometimes."

Under cross-examination he said he remembered what he and the girl spoke about in the first couple of minutes but could not recall the conversation for the other hour and a half.

Harris also said he had gone to the isolated barn at Stanton Fitzwarren, where the teenager alleges she was sexually assaulted, on a previous occasion to have sex with a woman in his car.

Harris' wife of 15 years, Jackie, told the court they lived together but they had separate rooms and she saw nothing strange about him at the time of the alleged incident.

Harris is accused of picking up the girl and driving her out into the country where he carried out a sex assault on her.

He admits sexual contact but said the teenager made all the running.

Harris, of Charlton Close, Penhill, denies kidnap, sexual assault and two counts of attempted rape.

• The case continues