Taxi driver, 63, faces jail for sex attacks on two teenage victims
Pervert taxi driver, 63, faces jail for sex attacks on two ‘very drunk’ teenage boys who he pounced on in the back of his cab
- John Simpson, 63, was found guilty of sexually assaulting two teens in his taxi
- Both victims told the court they were forced to fight the taxi driver off them
- Simpson was also found guilty of making sexual comments to a third passenger
- He was placed on the sex offenders register and will be sentenced next month
A perverted taxi driver who preyed on two ‘very drunk’ teenage passengers in the back of his cab is facing a jail sentence.
John Simpson, 63, was found guilty of sexually assaulting two 18-year-olds in separate incidents, and for making sexual comments to a third victim.
He denied the allegations but was found guilty of the charges by a jury following a four-day trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Crown Court.
Taxi driver John Simpson, 63, has been found guilty of sexually assaulting two teenage victims in the back of his cab, and for making sexual comments to a third victim, in sperate incidents between 2015 and 2019
The court heard the first incident happened on July 18, 2015, when the victim woke up in the back of Simpson’s taxi to find the driver performing a sex act on him.
The victim, now 24, told the jury he was forced to fight the driver off which resulted in Simpson suffering serious injuries.
The victim said he suffered cuts and grazed during the assault.
The second victim said he had been picked up by Simpson’s taxi after a drunken night out with friends in Portobello, Edinburgh, on April 29, 2019.
Now 20, he told the jury Simpson had made sexual comments to him during the journey before pulling into a deserted street in Cockenzie, East Lothian.
The victim said he was ‘repulsed’ after the driver asked him ‘if he liked laddies’.
He told the jury the taxi driver ‘jumped into the back’ and said he would perform a sex act on him ‘as payment’.
The victim added: ‘At first I just brushed it off as I didn’t think it was serious. He came into the back [of the taxi].
‘I just let him do what he wanted to do – I just let it happen.
‘I just sat there as I was really scared.
‘I was just 18 at the time and very drunk and on my own. I didn’t know what else I could have done.’
The victim said around 20 seconds later he then ‘punched and head butted’ Simpson and managed to flee the taxi, before he told a passing bus driver about the attack and the police were called.
He said he now suffers from ‘nightmares’ due to the attack and struggles with his nerves.
Simpson’s victims told Edinburgh Sheriff Crown Court they were both forced to fight the taxi driver off them. The 63-year-old has been placed on the sex offenders register and will be sentenced next month
Simpson, from Prestonpans, East Lothian, claimed to the jury that he was attacked by the first victim in 2015 and believed he was ‘going to be murdered’ in the incident.
He also said the second victim had instigated the sex chat during the taxi journey and claimed he ‘never touched him’.
The jury took just two hours to convict Simpson of the two sex assaults and a further charge of making sexual comments to a third male victim in the course of a taxi journey in May 2019.
Following the verdict, Sheriff Alistair Noble said: ‘You have been convicted of extremely serious offences and all options will be open to the court.’
The sheriff placed Simpson on the sex offenders register and deferred full sentence to next month.
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