Sex Crime Taxi Driver accused

A "sexually predatory" taxi driver allegedly sexually assaulted a female passenger as she dozed in his car, a jury heard on Monday.




The jury at Belfast Crown Court also heard that when arrested and interviewed within hours of the alleged incident last July, Value Cabs driver 48-year-old Duncan Hutchinson Frame claimed the woman had offered him "payment in kind" during the journey.



Frame, from Castle Meadows in Newtownards, Co Down,denies a single charge of sexual assault against the 20-year-old woman on July 2 last year.







Opening the case against Frame, prosecuting lawyer David Russell said the woman had been socialising with friends in the city centre and at a house party when she ordered a taxi to take her from west Belfast back to the east.



He described how the female was tired and dozed off in the passenger seat. However, she was aware of Frame allegedly rubbing her right leg "but she shrugged so he knew she was awake".



Further into the journey, the lawyer said that Frame turned right somewhere on the Newtownards Road with his passenger thinking he was taking a short cut.



"She heard a click as he took off his seat belt," said Mr Russell, continuing to describe how the taxi-man reportedly kissed and touched her.



He told the jury of seven men and five women that Frame's alleged victim managed to turn her body round and he took his hands away from her before telling him "to take her home a number of times and he did so".



Mr Russell said added that the woman got Frame to drop her around the corner from her home as "she didn't want him knowing exactly where she lived".



Once inside, the "very upset and hysterical" woman told her mother what had happened and the police were called.

The lawyer said that when she went out that night, the woman had taken £50 with her and that when she got home, she still had £30 left.



Frame was arrested within hours of the alleged incident.



He claimed that as he drove the fare across the city, the alleged victim had asked him how much it would be because she only had £10 left "but that they could stop along the way...you know what I mean".



Reading from the police interviews transcript, Mr Russell said police asked Frame what he thought she meant and he replied: "Payment in kind basically."



He told police that while he was "always professional," the fare asked him to stop along the way.



Then, he alleged that she took his hand and placed it inside her the clothing on her lower body.



"And then she said stop which I did do," claimed Frame, "and she said take me home, which I did do".



He added that he didn't take any payment for the journey because he felt "awkward because of what happened".



Mr Russell put to the jury that although the facts of what happened were entirely for them to decide, "the prosecution case is that at the end of the evidence you will be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of the guilt of the accused."



The trial continues.