Woman taxi driver left on roadside after hijacking

A woman taxi driver had her car hijacked by a passenger who left her on the side of a dual-carriageway in the middle of the night causing her so much anxiety in the months afterwards that she went on to suffer a heart attack.

The frightening incident for the taxi driver was described yesterday by the sentencing judge as bizarre.

Garda Robert McCarthy, who investigated the crime, said Margaret Butler of 31 Forest Hill, Mill Road, Midleton, Co Cork, was one of four passengers who got into the taxi at Crestfield shopping centre, Glanmire, before one o’clock in the morning to travel to Midleton. When they were on the N25 (the main dual-carriageway to Midleton) Butler insisted that she needed to go to the toilet.

Garda McCarthy said the driver was reluctant to stop, but eventually did so because of Butler’s insistence that she had to go to the toilet. The driver put on hazard warning lights at the side of the road.

Butler’s behaviour became more aggressive and she pulled the driver out of the car, took the car keys and drove away.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin imposed an 18-month suspended jail sentence.