A taxi driver was attacked by two teenage passengers who left him bleeding out in a pool of his own blood in the street after they repeatedly stabbed him over a £6 taxi fare. The victim was noticed by a man living nearby who applied pressure to the wound to prevent blood loss and then contacted the emergency services who sent out the paramedics and doctors that managed to save the 58-year-old's life, Wales Online reports.
One of the attackers went on to brag to his friends and family about how he had stabbed the cabbie of 25 years and even uploaded a shocking clip of himself rapping about it onto his Instagram account. The terrified driver said that he believed he was going to die after one of his stab wounds severed a major artery and he lost a significant amount of blood as he lay in the street waiting for an ambulance to arrive.
The two 18-year old thugs have been locked up behind bars after a judge said that the brutal attack would have been one of the most terrifying incidents to have happened on the streets of Swansea. Megan Jones, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court said said at half-past-midnight on June 29 this year a Yellow Cabs taxi collected Kyle Parsons and Ludvik Rac from the firm's office opposite Swansea's High street railway station.
The teenage passengers asked first to be taken to the Fairfield social club in the Mayhill area of the city but changed the destination en route, and said they wanted to go to old Swansea Boys Club building on the other side of Mayhill. Once at the abandoned building the teenagers told the cabbie to stop, and they got out of the vehicle - they then launched an attack on the driver.
Rac pulled the taxi driver from the car and assaulted him before Parson produced a large knife which he began swinging at the driver. Rac jumped into the driver's seat of the car but was dragged out by the cabbie, and Parson then repeatedly stabbed the taxi driver in the leg and buttocks - one of the stab wounds severed a major artery causing massive loss of blood.
The court heard the teenagers ran off and the stricken taxi driver tried to staunch the flood of blood by wrapping his own belt around his thigh but was unable to do so due to the pain. By chance a man living nearby called Phillip Bowler was putting his bins out and saw the cabbie in a pool of blood on the ground - he used a towel to make a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, and the court heard his actions in those first crucial minutes saved the cabbie's life.
Paramedics were soon on the scene and the victim was rushed to hospital having lost around two litres of blood from multiple wounds to his thighs and buttocks, including one "though and through" stab wound. He was rushed into emergency surgery and doctors were able to save his leg and save his life.
The prosecutor said later that same day the defendant Parson spoke to his sister and told her he had stabbed a taxi driver by the old Boys Club over a £6 fare. He also told her that he had co-defendant Rac had been planning to rob someone at a cash point that evening but that had not worked out, and that Rac and tried to steal the taxi.
The sister later described her sibling as "bigging himself up" during the conversation. The court heard Parsons also boasted about the attack to his partner's mother, the later posted a video of himself on Instagram rapping about how he and "Ludo" had stabbed a taxi driver and how he was now on the run.
Police quickly identified the two suspects, and arrested the defendants. In a victim statement which was read to the court the taxi driver described the devastating physical and emotional impact of the attack.
He said he had always worked hard since leaving school to provide a good home for his family, and had worked long hours as a taxi driver for 25 years - a job he had always really enjoyed but could now no longer do. He said he had been subjected to "inexplicable violence" by two young men who had enjoyed what they did to him, adding it was not a robbery gone wrong but an attack carried out by people who were looking for violence.
The cabbie said as he lay on the road waiting for an ambulance he thought his life was over, and he said he wanted to thank Mr Bowler, medical' staff, and police for everything they had done. Kyle Richards Parsons, of no fixed abode, and Ludvik Rac, of Dyfrig Road, Caerau, Cardiff, had both previously pleaded guilty to attempted robbery when they appeared in the dock together for sentencing.
Parson had also previously pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent, and to possession of a bladed article. Parsons has nine previous convictions for 19 offences including sexual assaults, exposure, batteries, criminal damage, and affray. Rac has no previous convictions. Lee Davies, for Parsons, said the best mitigation he could put forward for his client was his guilty pleas.
He said the defendant had experience "a very difficult" upbringing in the care system, and was an immature young man. The advocate said though unpalatable, the boasting about the attack on social media which Parsons carried out was a sign of his immaturity and of how scared he was.
Hywel Davies, for Rac, said the defendant had little recollection of the evening in question due to his consumption of Valium and Xanax tablets. He said his client had experience physical and psychological abuse at the hands of his mother while growing up - including on one occasion being locked in a basement of a property which was then set alight - and as a result had been taken into care where he "moved from home to home" and suffered racial abuse.
The barrister said Rac had expressed to him his desire to serve the inevitable custodial sentence he was facing then get a "proper job, a proper family, and a proper life". Judge Hywel James said the late-night attack on the taxi driver must have been one of the most frightening incidents to have been played out on the streets of Swansea.
With discounts for this guilty pleas Parsons was made the subject of an 10-and-a-half year extended sentence as a dangerous offender comprising seven-and-a-half years in custody followed by a three year licence period. He can apply for release after serving two-thirds of the custodial element of his sentence but it will be for the Parole Board to determine if he is safe to be released, and on what conditions.
With a discount for his guilty plea Rac was sentenced to four-and-a-half years detention in a young offenders institution. He will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
Speaking after the sentencing South Wales Police detective sergeant Andy Davies said: "This was a very nasty and totally unprovoked attack on the victim, and it could easily have had more serious life-threatening consequences for him. The suspects were quickly identified and arrested as a result of a comprehensive investigation supported by information from members of the public.
"This case illustrates very clearly the risks and harm caused by people carrying knives. I hope the sentences received will provide some level of reassurance to the victim and his family, and also serve as a suitable deterrent message to others about the penalties that serious knife crimes such as this will attract."
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