'Taxi driver fractured my skull'
A TAXI passenger has told how he was left with a fractured skull after being beaten by a baseball bat-wielding cabbie.
Adrian Dubiel was hit twice with the bat in a Newcastle side-street just minutes after being picked up from a night out.
Doctors later diagnosed the 28-year-old – who spent six days in hospital – with a depressed fracture of the skull.
Today, private hire driver Amran Khan is starting a three-and-a-half year prison sentence after being convicted of attacking Mr Dubiel and hitting another customer in similar circumstances months earlier.
Mr Dubiel told The Sentinel how he flagged down Khan's taxi to go home on June 15, after the rest of his friends went for a curry.
He said: "I jumped in and said 'Madeley for a tenner mate?' He said 'I will show you a ride for a tenner'. Then he sped off to The Brampton. I said 'You're going the wrong way', and he stopped and told me to get out.
"I was a bit bemused and just wanted to go home. I was going to walk back to town to get another taxi when he came up behind me and clubbed me on the back of the head with a baseball bat, and again on my back.
"I didn't realise what had happened until I turned round and saw him going back to the car with the bat. I was in shock – there had been no argument, it was completely unprovoked."
Mr Dubiel, who now lives at Westbury Park, went to the police station and later had nine stitches in his head. His fractured skull was diagnosed three days later.
Father-of-three Khan, of Rushton Road, Cobridge, was convicted last month of assaulting Philip Booth, from Biddulph, on February 23 last year and causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Dubiel with intent on June 15.
The court heard Mr Booth – who had agreed to pay £20 to get him to Biddulph – was struck several times with a baseball bat after Khan demanded more money.
But Ian Metcalfe, mitigating, told Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court that 31-year-old Khan still expresses his innocence.
Recorder Martin Wasik yesterday jailed Khan for three years for attacking Mr Dubiel and six months to run consecutively for assaulting Mr Booth.
He told Khan: "The public are entitled to expect they will be safe when they get in a taxi late at night and offer to pay the fare home.
"In the pre-sentence report you say both matters were a case of mistaken identity and it was not you.
"On the evidence which was presented at trial I have no doubt the convictions were correct."
50 Comments
View all
by GlynC
Monday, January 09 2012, 5:30PM
“Lungknot, there at non Asians taxi firms, abc , sids, z cars, etc. , try googling them”
by lungknot
Saturday, January 07 2012, 3:06PM
“Are there any non asian taxi firms in Stoke on Trent?”
by Stokie Girl, Stoke on Trent
Wednesday, April 01 2009, 5:11PM
“Here we go again...an Asian guy does something wrong & your average Stokie blames the whole Asian comminuty.
Im sick of reading racist comments as a result of the odd member of the Asian community doing something wrong.
Just becuase 1 Asian guy's got issues & is a thug does not mean we have to racially abuse the rest of the community.
Mr Khan is a British guy of Asian origin - just because he's a nasty peice of work does not mean we should ship anyone with more than a light tan out of the country.
Grow up & look at the white british thugs around you - theres plenty of them.
The vast majority of Asian people are law abiding citizens who do nothing but work hard and pay their taxes to keep this hovel of a country afloat - in fact if you want to be pedantic, if it wasnt for the influx of people from India & Pakistan back in the 50s & 60's this country would have gone straight to hell a long time ago.
Why dont the racists just hop on the next plane to the deep south & join their equally intelligent friends in the KKK as thats the only place they & their views are welcome!”
by Saj, Burslem
Wednesday, April 01 2009, 1:35PM
“Forgot to mention i am a taxi driver.Thx.
ps reading another article of assault in sentinal
"Driver forced to stop on A500 and attacked in road rage attack
Tuesday, March 31, 2009, 11:00"
he got 9 months, What do people think. i bet he got a fair sentence .....not.
Its not about colour or creed, its just about the pl**kers sitting in magistrates or crown courts and the cps.”
by Saj, Burslem
Wednesday, April 01 2009, 1:23PM
“i would like to clarify two things one: no where in the sentinal did it say that this was a racist attack.
Two: The victems Adrian and Mr Booth have not said or mentioned it was a racist attack any where in the sentinal.
So why are some people automaticaly jumping on the band wagon and assuming racist attack other than to just stir up resentment and Hatred.
To all the people making the silly racist comments about deporting or flying the flag, get used to the fact that British Born asians, Blacks are as english as you. and we have every right to be here as you have. If we break the law of the land then we expect to be punished, so be it. Khan broke the law and hes gone to jail.
Khan was just a greedy person who thought he could take advantage and get more money out of drunken custumers. He's got his just deserve.
ps: fly the St georges flag, but fly it for the right reasons, Fly it to show your proud of England and being English (even if your black, white or brown). Dont let the bnp hijack it.
Proud to be english and a Pakistani.”
by stephen, newcastle
Tuesday, March 31 2009, 11:05PM
“spot on sylvia.”
by JON, CHESHIRE
Tuesday, March 31 2009, 9:53PM
“Why have we not heard from any asian taxi drivers condeming this attack do they agree with what has happened????”
by robert, London
Tuesday, March 31 2009, 7:11PM
“Where in the above story does it say anything about race. I see this is a hot topic in Stoke.”
by CM, Edinburgh
Tuesday, March 31 2009, 6:50PM
“Reading these comments just makes me sad, to be honest.
There is absolutely nothing in this story that suggests that it was a racist attack (it may well have been, but we just don't know). Had it been the other way around there is similarly no evidence that it would have been treated as a racist incident, other than peoples' fears and suppositions about an encroaching threat from 'others'.
I would say that these attacks could just have likely been attacks on drunken loutish young people who frequent Newcastle and Hanley on almost any night of the week. Of course, people will (rightly) pull me up for generalising so blatantly as the vast majority of those who go out to the towns are not drunken or louts.
Generalising though seems to be the stock in trade of those that have left comments here. This man was convicted of attacking two people, and he could easily have killed one of them. He has been sentenced to a relatively short period of time in prison - which seems to me to very lenient, and does not act as sufficient warning to others not to do the same thing. This is something to be angry about, not the fact that he has a different colour skin, or a name which heavily marks his ethnicity.
To me, this seems to be an isolated incident (although I do not have figures to support this), albiet a shocking one. White-on-white assaults are far more prevalent than assaults inter-ethnically. Violence in our society is the problem, not race, ethnicity, or religious belief. Voting BNP will not help this, and could very well lead to more violence.
For the record, I have been assaulted twice (by white people), my brother twice (by white people), my other brother three times (by white people), my friend twice (by white people), another friend three times (by white people), another friend once (by white people), and the list goes on. One of my acquaintances was assaulted by a group of Asian men, after he shouted racist abuse at them - just so you don't think I'm making that list up, although reading it it seems that we've all been rather unlucky!
What do we do with those white folk who assaulted me and my friends? Deport them? No, and nor should we, but we should address the route cause - poverty, disenfranchisement, unemployment, lack of education and skills, and an unthinking fear of other people who appear to have more. Education is the key to most of these, and only when we have ensured that this is the best it can be will things begin to change.”
by sylvia, newcastle
Tuesday, March 31 2009, 4:54PM
“The trouble is the race card is so often brandished at the drop of a hat by many ethic minorities to excuse many crimes, or exaggerate crimes committed upon them, which is why so many people get so aggrieved with the current situation. A level playing field is all that is needed, though I seriously doubt we'll ever get it”