Terrified woman forced to walk half a mile in the dark alone near where Libby Squire vanished after taxi driver refused to enter ‘rough estate’
Rebecca Garner, 28, was told to get out of the taxi near the Orchard Park Estate in Hull last Saturday night
A TERRIFIED woman said she was forced to walk alone in the dark for half a mile when her taxi driver refused to enter a “rough estate”.
Rebecca Garner was left all by herself after midnight near Orchard Park in Hull on Saturday night — less than two miles from where Libby Squire was last seen alive.
The city was shaken by the 21-year-old student’s disappearance and the tragic discovery of her body, which was recovered from the water of the Humber Estuary.
Rebecca says the driver was initially willing to take her all the way to her home in the estate, but then half way through the journey changed his tune.
He told her he couldn’t go any nearer because he was “banned” from going in as the estate was deemed too dangerous for drivers.
‘BEGGED TO TAKE ME HOME’
Rebecca, 28, told the : “I begged him to take me home but he kept telling me he couldn’t take the risk in case his taxi got smashed up.”
She added that despite feeling vulnerable, she didn’t want to cause a fuss.
The driver made her get out and walk at Thorpepark Academy and walk to the other end of the road over half a mile away.
Rebecca said: “I was absolutely terrified because you never know what’s around the corner.”
Last week, the Taxi Association put a ban on its drivers going to Orchard Park after a thrown brick smashed a cabbie’s window.
The attack was the latest in a string of incidents targeting taxis and buses in the area.
But the head of the Association Peter Nilsson has apologised to Rebecca and is urging drivers to “assess each situation individually”.
CHARGED FOR THE RIDE
Rebecca says she was still charged £10 for the trip and the cabbie drove off as soon as she got out — not stopping to help her pick up her belongings which she’d dropped in fear.
She then had to walk for ten minutes in the pitch dark along a road where she’d been mugged a couple of years ago.
Mr Nilsson said he doesn’t “want people to be left anywhere”.
In a statement, he added: “I am truly sorry it has come to this but until we can guarantee the safety of our drivers and their customers, this is what has to happen.”
Humberside Police is currently cracking down on antisocial behaviour on the estate by upping its patrols in the area.
Between March 2018 and February 2019, Hull’s violent crime rate was 131 per cent of the national average.
And it had risen by 33.2 per cent on the previous year with some 17,800 violent crimes being committed in the post code area.
That represents over 30 per cent of all the crimes committed in the region.
The Hull post code area also has the second-worst shoplifting crime rate in the country, trailing only behind Cleveland in Teesside.
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