Drew Davidson, 26, of Aberdare Road, Sunderland, has been given 27 months in prison, suspended for three years, for an attack on a one-armed taxi driver. Newcastle Crown Court heard that the driver was mocked about his prosthetic arm during a journey in Sunderland on 14 July 2024. Chronicle Live reported the sentence on 22 October 2026. Chronicle Live report
Davidson pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He had no previous convictions.
The journey
The driver collected Davidson and another man. They asked for a second drop-off and were told that any extra stop had to be added on the app through which they had booked. They refused, swore at him, told him to move, and called him a useless taxi driver. One lunged forward. The driver got out. They followed him.
Davidson referred to the prosthetic arm, used offensive and discriminatory names, and asked: "What are you going to do with that?"
The assault
Prosecutor Jake Bowman told the court there was a scuffle once the men were outside the car.
"During that the defendant punched the complainant to the left side of the head, causing him to stumble and the second male kicked his legs from under him, causing him to fall to the ground. Both the defendant and the second male continued to assault him while he was on the floor. He was kicked and stamped on. The defendant accepts he stamped on the complainant's left hand. The second male stamped on and kicked the complainant to the head, his head repeatedly bounced off the pavement. The complainant said he feared for his life in that moment and honestly believed they were not going to stop. He curled himself in a ball to protect himself."
The guilty plea was entered on the basis that Davidson did not kick or stamp on the driver's head. The other man was not named.
The driver suffered cuts and bruises to both sides of his head and face, bruising and grazing to an arm and a leg, a broken thumb and a broken finger.
After the attack
In his victim impact statement, the driver described a genuine fear for his life. He gave up night work, the shifts on which he had made most of his money, and he no longer trusts people getting into the car. The injury to his only hand, alongside having no right arm, has had a serious effect. He put his lost earnings at £116,000 over two years. That is his own figure. He had been unable to work. The taxi was repossessed, his marriage has ended, and he has been left homeless.
"It's left me a mental and physical wreck. I attempted to take my life. No one could even imagine the impact this attack has had on me."
The sentence
The driver had been there to help, and Recorder Andrew Haslam KC called the attack a "thoroughly despicable assault for which you should be ashamed of yourself", treating it as aggravated by hostility towards the driver because of his disability.
"The complainant thought he was going to die because he didn't think you and the other male were going to stop.
"These are the effects violence has on innocent members of the public providing a service to us all."
Davidson was sentenced to 27 months, suspended for three years, with 250 hours of unpaid work, £1,000 compensation and £550 costs.
Jordan Parkinson, defending, told the court that Davidson had not punched the driver inside the car and had not been the person who lunged. He accepted the stamp on the hand. He was not responsible for the kicks and stamps to the head. That was the other man. Nothing had been planned. He is in full-time work, looks after his elderly mother, and the offence was out of character. He wanted to apologise.
The Sunderland Echo also reported a supervision requirement, and that the injured hand still causes him pain all the time. Its account of the hearing includes a further remark from the recorder, that the physical injuries paled beside the effect on the driver's life.