Athlone women fear sex attacks as town cabbies pull services

A row between the taxi regulator and local cabs in Athlone may leave many young women without a ride home at night.
By Cormac Murphy

Friday September 26 2008

A ROW involving taxi drivers has increased fears for the safety of young women in Athlone, where a suspected serial sex attacker remains at large.

Cabbies in the Midlands town withdrew their services last night after officials from the industry's regulator issued fines for parking outside a taxi rank.

And the drivers say they could take similar action again if they do not get assurances from the Taxi Regulator that more fines will not be issued.

This means that hundreds of young women might have to walk home tonight, heightening the risk of a further assault.

"Last night, the regulator left us with no option but to take all our cars off the road," taxi driver Derek Chambers said today.

"We had to take them off the road -- the regulator would have fined people for picking up when they were not in the rank," Mr Chambers told the Herald.

"We don't want to take cars off the road, we want people to get home safely," he added.

Mr Chambers (33), a father of one from Athlone, said the last thing taxi drivers want in the current circumstances is that young women will have to walk home alone. He said up to six drivers were issued with fines of €250 each after regulator officers posing as passengers got into their cabs.

Action

At 1.30am today, the drivers approached the officers and said they would have to take all the taxis off the road.

They then went to the local garda station to tell gardai what they were doing.

"It has never happened before," Mr Chambers said.

Drivers have not planned any action for tonight, but they will remove their cars again if there is a risk of further fines.

The rank in question is on Church Street, the Co Westmeath town's main thoroughfare, near popular nightspots Karma and Q. It only has eight parking spaces but there are between 150 and 160 taxis, Mr Chambers said.

A spokesperson for the regulator could not be contacted this morning.

Meanwhile, gardai continue to hunt for a man suspected of carrying out five separate violent attacks on young women in Athlone.

Officers even hired a criminal profiler to help them nab the perpetrator.

An incident in the Hallsbridge area of the town last Saturday was the fifth such assault in little over a year.

A woman (28) was attacked early in the morning as she walked home from a 24-hour shop. She managed to escape her assailant but revealed the man tried to rape her.

In all five cases, the man has grabbed his victims from behind as they walked alone in the town and beaten them.

The latest assault was the second in a week and it followed three unsolved attacks in the Bonavalley Bridge area of Athlone between August and October 2007.

- Cormac Murphy