A man tricked a teen on a night out into getting in his car then drove her to a flat, locked her in and pinned her to the bed by her throat.
John Stanley targeted the 17-year-old in Liverpool city centre back in 2018. After telling the victim, who the ECHO has chosen not to name, that he needed help getting home, the former taxi driver launched an attack which a judge today said would “send a chill down the spine” of girls and women in the city.
Stanley, now 35, protested his innocence for years but is now behind bars after a jury at Liverpool Crown Court saw through his lies. Arthur Gibson, prosecuting, said the girl was on a night out with a friend at Baa Bar in the early hours of October 3, 2018, when they came across Stanley and another man.
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The jury in his trial heard Stanley manipulated the girl, coaxing her into his car and asking her to drive him home, crying when she said she couldn’t do so. She eventually agreed to get in his car with her friend and the other man, to try to help him. However, Stanley then drove off, letting the girl’s friend and the other man out the car.
Mr Gibson said that once they were alone Stanley’s mood changed dramatically and he became aggressive. He refused to drive the girl home and instead took her to another house he was renting and said he would call a taxi.
The teen tried to contact a friend for help but didn’t know where she was being taken. When Stanley parked the car she refused to get out and asked him to call her a taxi outside but he grabbed her by the head and dragged her into the flat, throwing her against a wall in the process.
He took her phone into another room and lied to her that he had put it on charge as she pleaded with him to let her call a taxi and leave. She started to cry and Stanley said he would call her a taxi and got into a bed in the room. The girl then went to go and get her phone to try to call for help and found the phone had not been put on charge. When she went to try to find a phone she saw Stanley, who she said was then trying to convince her to sex with him.
In her evidence, recounted in court at a sentencing hearing today, the girl said: “I said ‘I’m too young for you anyway. I’m not interested’. He said ‘You’re not that young’. I said ‘I’m only 17, you look like an old man. He said ‘oh you’re not very nice, I’m only 28’.”
At that point Stanley “crawled across the bed” and grabbed the girl around the waist. He then pinned her down on the bed, choking her. The girl managed to get one of her high heels and hit Stanley over the head with it before trying to flee. She found the keys and managed to unlock the door to the flat.
Mr Gibson said: “Even then, he did not let her go. He chased her down the stairs. Fortuitously, there was a member of the public present.” That woman managed to get a taxi for the girl and she fled.
Stanley repeatedly denied he had even met the girl that night but a jury found him guilty after a trial at Liverpool Crown Court last month. Anthony O’Donohoe, defending, said that despite Stanley's denials during the trial he had since begun to take responsibility for what he had done in interviews with probation officers.
He said Stanley, who had no previous convictions at the time of the attack, was engulfed in a vortex of drug and alcohol abuse, a gambling addiction and mental health problems. Mr O’Donohoe said: “Your honour may think that what was going on here was a man who was, at that stage, frankly, a bit of a mess. That may be putting it mildly.”
Judge Brian Cummings, QC, said Stanley continued to minimise what he had done and had failed to take responsibility for his actions even after he was found guilty.
He paid tribute to the victim, whom he called an “impressive young person”, for her actions before and during the trial and said Stanley’s actions had widespread ramifications for her life.
Judge Cummings said: “This is a case that will, I’m afraid, send a chill down the spine of any young girl or woman, or any parent.”
Stanley was charged only with false imprisonment and not with any sexual offence, however Judge Cummings said he had no doubt that there was “a sexual motivation” behind what Stanley had done.
He said: “I have very real fears as to what would have happened to the victim had she not managed to escape when she did. I have no confidence whatsoever that it would have ended well for her.”
Stanley, of Handlake Drive, was handed an extended jail term of 11 years. He will have to serve seven years in custody. A restraining order will prevent him from contacting the victim and a criminal behaviour order will prevent him from working unsupervised with children or vulnerable adults or as a taxi driver without notifying authorities of his offences.
