Kidnapping trial: 'I screamed for help as taxi driver punched friends', girl tells Hull Crown Court

A YOUNG woman who was allegedly kidnapped by a taxi driver told a jury she screamed as she watched him punch her friends in the face as they tried to escape.

Karl Marson, 35, collected the three women outside the Weir Bar, in Hessle, on September 8 and is alleged to have driven them to a secluded area in Willerby in a bid to commit sex acts.

One girl told him during the journey that she had no money to pay for the taxi back to west Hull and it is alleged Mr Marson demanded they perform sex acts in exchange for payment.

Hull Crown Court has heard he told the women he would take them home despite the fact they had no money.

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The girl told the jury she had repeatedly thanked Mr Marson for offering to still take them home but became concerned when she realised they were driving on grass and were no longer on the main road.

She said he locked the car doors and she was unable to get out of the car at first, until he opened the doors and she then grabbed her friend.

The woman said: "I just grabbed her by the arm to get her out with me.

"I grabbed her arm to pull her out. I was not going to leave them in the car. We ran.

"I turned and he punched one friend in the face and then as my other friend went to help her he punched her with force to the face and then pushed her to the floor. I was telling him to get off her."

She told the court she was "screaming" and "screeching" for help and she called the police as the taxi drove off.

Mr Marson radioed into his taxi office and claimed he had been attacked by the women. In cross-examination, his barrister Richard Thompson put it to the woman: "It is impossible to lock people in cars, I suggest. I suggest if you had just pulled the handle, whether the door was locked or not, it would have opened and the driver told you to do that if you wanted to get out.

"If you had heard the doors locking as you pulled on to the lane then you would have told us that."

She replied: "I tried to pull the handle."

Mr Thompson suggested it was the woman who had suggested she perform a sex act on the driver and not the other way around.

He said: "I'm not suggesting you were seriously intending to do that but said that to him instead of paying a fare.

"He told you that was not an appropriate thing to say and he was disgusted by that. He told you he wouldn't drive you home."

The woman replied: "It didn't happen. I didn't say that."

It is alleged during the journey Mr Marson changed his course and drove them along a private track to a waterworks off Blackthorn Lane.

The court heard the women had been refused entry to the Weir Bar after a night of drinking, prior to calling the taxi.

Mr Marson, of Tickton Grove, Hull, denies three charges of kidnap, committing kidnap with intent to commit a sex offence, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assault by beating.

The trial continues.