A man who nearly cut off a taxi driver’s nose in a “gratuitous and sadistic” act of violence has been jailed.
Manchester Crown Court at Crown Square heard how Richard McCormack, 38, of Bell Lane, Bury, had gone out in the early hours of January 8 when he came across a man close to The Rock shopping centre, asking him for a cigarette paper before producing a four inch knife and demanding the whole stack.
Robert Elias, prosecuting, told the court that McCormack threatened the man, saying “get your white a**e out of here or I’ll stab you up and kill you”, whilst wearing a face mask. A taxi driver then pulled up outside the Halifax bank to let a woman grab cash out to pay the fare, and McCormack jumped into the back of the cab, bringing the knife to the driver’s throat and threatening to kill him unless he handed over his cash.
The frightened driver passed over his takings bag, and McCormack stabbed him in the back of the hand, leaving a 7cm gash around his thumb area which later needed stitches. The driver also pressed his emergency button, and the taxi office called his personal phone, prompting the driver to flee the cab shouting down the phone for help.
In a callous act of violence, McCormack chased the man down and stabbed him to the back of the head after he slipped on ice and fell, before picking him up and slashing at his face at least four times, almost completely severing the driver’s nose from his face in what Mr Elias described as a “gratuitous and sadistic piece of violence for his own satisfaction”.
After the senseless attack, McCormack picked up the victim’s phone and ran off, leaving the man and his passenger at the scene of the crime. In a chilling twist, the passenger later reported receiving a Facebook message from McCormack in the days after the attack, asking what she’d seen before telling her “I’m in the paper, the attacker" and saying he did nothing wrong.
The victim was left with various cuts to his face, including a 6cm gash from his nose down to his top lip, which he feared would make his wife leave him and cause his young son to be afraid of him. A victim impact statement read to the court by Mr Elias described the man's permanent facial scars and "atrocious" amount of pain the taxi driver was left with, and read: "I don't like going out and I'm still in fear and traumatised, every time I leave the house I fear I'll be attacked again.
"As I was waiting in A&E I was in fear that my son would not be able to look at me the same way and I was scared my wife would want to leave me for looking abnormal so my wife and child would be terrified of me." A statement from the man's wife, who was 30 weeks pregnant with their second child at the time of the attack, described the day her husband was attacked as her whole world collapsing, before fainting when she saw her husband in hospital and needing counselling herself to move past the traumatic event.
McCormack has 23 previous convictions for 55 offences, including convictions for attempted robberies, rape, and affray, with three convictions for possessing a bladed article or weapon. Two of his crimes were committed whilst he was on an extended licence for serious offences, with his offending pattern growing more serious as time went on, leading His Honour Judge Timothy Smith to consider imposing a life sentence onto the man to protect the public.
Milena Bennett, defending, urged the judge to consider an alternative sentence, instead asking for an extended licence period for her client, as he accepted full responsibility for his actions, which were part of an opportunistic wave of crime rather than a pre-planned operation, and was willing to engage with further assessments to determine whether a brain injury sustained as a child at the hands of his abusive alcoholic father, which may have been made worse after McCormack lost consciousness due to a stab wound in his neck, may be a cause for his offending behaviour.
Ultimately, Judge Smith decided the risk to the public was too great, and handed McCormack a life sentence. In his sentencing remarks he drew attention to several points of concern, including the man's comments to the taxi driver where he said: "I just want to kill you, I just want to kill someone", and the repeat pattern of committing more serious offences whilst on an extended licence for an already serious offence. A probation report stated McCormack was a risk of causing serious harm to the public, with a "real risk of a grave outcome" existing if nothing was done to rehabilitate him.
Judge Smith passed down a life sentence to McCormack for wounding with intent, stating he must serve a minimum term of 15 years for the offence. He will not be eligible for release for ten of those 15 years, after which a parole board may meet to discuss whether he still poses a risk to the public or whether he can be considered for release. Concurrent sentences of nine years and four months for the robbery of the taxi driver, five years and five months for the robbery of the cigarette papers, and 19 months for possession of the knife were also handed down in court. The CPS offered no evidence for a charge of attempted murder, so a not guilty plea was recorded.
Speaking after the sentencing, Gary Logan, a senior prosecutor with the CPS said: “Richard McCormack carried out two terrifying knife point robberies in a short space of time, showing he would go to any lengths to get his hands on whatever he demanded; in this case cigarette papers and a small bag of change. Firstly he terrified a man in the street with a knife, he then went on to carry out a prolonged attack on a taxi driver.
"He did not stop when he ran away, he chased him down the street and continued a frenzied knife attack when he was on the floor and unable to defend himself, causing life changing injuries. Everyone has the right to go about their daily lives without fear of being threatened with or harmed by knives. The CPS takes knife crime extremely seriously and worked together with the police to bring this offender to justice in order to protect the public from further harm at his hands.”
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