Cork taxi driver angry after attacker gets adult caution

A taxi driver who was beaten up at work has spoken out after the man who admitted assaulting him got off with a warning.

John Constant, who suffered facial injuries in the attack on the outskirts of Cork City earlier this year, said the decision sends out the wrong message to taxi drivers and others who may be victims of assault.

“I would be slow to make a formal complaint to gardaí if this happens again,” he said. “If somebody hits me again, why would I bother going to all that trouble to report it, when nothing seems to happen?”

Mr Constant was attacked after picking up six men on Grand Parade last March.

As he was dropping four of them off at the entrance to the Highlands estate in Glounthaune, he claimed one of them had been sick in the back of his minivan.

He asked them to clean the mess, but they denied that they were responsible. When he warned them he would call the gardaí, one of the men, who had been asleep in the vehicle, came around and punched him in the face.

A second man knocked his phone from his hand and warned him to leave the scene before “things got worse”.

Mr Constant left but pulled over later to call the gardaí, who arrived soon afterwards and took details of the alleged assault.

A medical examination showed he had suffered facial soft tissue injuries, mainly around his right eye, which were consistent with one punch to the face.

It was the third time in his 25 years working as a taxi driver he had been attacked.

Mr Constant spoke publicly about his ordeal at the time on The Neil Prendeville Show on Red FM, which arranged for the installation of a security camera in his vehicle. He spoke out on the show again yesterday after it emerged no one will face prosecution for the incident.

The man who admitted striking him has been served with an adult caution.

Supt Mick Comyns of Mayfield Garda Station said adult cautions apply in certain cases only, and are generally used when the person who admits an offence has no previous convictions, and has never been in trouble with the law before. “The views of the victim are taken into consideration, along with all the other facts of the case. And in this case, an adult caution was deemed appropriate,” he said.

Mr Constant is considering his legal options.

Meanwhile, Mayfield gardaí have appealed for witnesses after a man on a motorbike was struck by an implement — possibly a hurley — which was being held by someone leaning out of a passing car. The motorcyclist managed to stay on his bike but discovered later he had suffered shoulder and collar bone injuries.

Supt Comyns appealed for anyone who was in the Colmcille Avenue area of Mayfield, between 7.15pm and 7.30pm on Monday, to contact them.

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