Jail for man over taxi driver attack

A VIOLENT thug who assaulted a taxi driver and then sparked a police hunt by going on the run has been jailed for 15 months.

Curtis King (23) punched private hire driver Mohammed Farooq (36) in a brutal assault in Peterborough, which also involved his sister Tanisha King, on June 4 last year.

Mr Farooq was left with a fractured cheek, bruising and fractured ribs.

Curtis King, a forklift truck driver, of Cavendish Street, Peterborough, went on the run on February 7 - just before a jury at Huntingdon Crown Court was about to deliver its verdict at his trial.

After being told earlier in the day he faced being sent to prison if convicted, he failed to answer bail to hear the jury’s guilty verdict – leading Recorder Robert Blomfield to issue a warrant for his arrest.

King handed himself in at the city’s Thorpe Wood police station four days later and was jailed for four weeks for failing to answer bail.

He was then due to be sentenced on March 8 but the prison van he was travelling to court in got delayed in heavy traffic on the A14.

As a result King returned to the court yesterday and was sentenced for 15 months in jail for the assault occasioning actual bodily harm on Mr Farooq.

King’s sister, mother-ofone Tanisha King (24), also of Cavendish Street, was also convicted of assault causing actual bodily harm against Mr Farooq in the three-day trial, but was later spared jail.

Tanisha King, who was pregnant at the time of her sentencing on March 8, fought back tears in the dock after Recorder Blomfield asked her why she should not be sent to jail during the hearing.

King, who has previous convictions for violence, said: “Because of my baby. I’m not going to behave like this any more.”

She was given a sentence of nine months in prison suspended for two years.

She was also sentenced to a two-year supervision order and given a three-month curfew order to stay at her home between the hours of 9pm and 7am.

During the attack, Mr Farooq was punched by Tanisha King, before being punched and knocked to the ground by Curtis King outside Marisqueira cafe, on the corner of Russell Street and Cromwell Road.

Curtis King then delivered a kick to the stricken taxi driver as he lay on the ground.

Both Curtis and Tanisha King denied a charge of assault causing actual bodily harm but were found guilty by a jury following a trial.

JAILED: Curtis King.