Predator jailed for kidnapping intoxicated Leeds woman from late-night Wakefield bar
Jury rejected it was an act of a “Good Samaritan”
A predator who snatched a woman in a late-night bar, led her away and forced her into a taxi has been jailed.
Anthony Jackson only ran off when the cab driver became suspicious and rang the police minutes after driving them away from Wakefield city centre.
Jackson, 58, denied wrongdoing but was found guilty of kidnap following a trial at Leeds Crown Court and sentenced this week.
The court heard that the victim had entered the bar in the lively Westgate area late at night.
CCTV played to the jury showed her walking into the bar sober and “compos mentis”.
Fifteen minutes later Jackson was seen to enter the establishment. Then just another 15 minutes later he emerged holding the woman who could barely stand upright.
Prosecutor Nick Adlington described her being “like a ragdoll”, such was her uncoordinated state.
He said there were three possible suggestions - that Jackson had spiked her drink, that another person had spiked her drink Jackson was taking advantage, or that the drink she consumed that night had taken hold in those few minutes, and Jackson again was taking advantage.
Judge Simon Batiste said there was no evidence that she had been spiked, so had to sentence him on the basis that she had not been.
Having left the bar holding onto the woman, Jackson then pushed her into a taxi and got in himself.
The taxi driver became suspicious because the woman was repeatedly saying she wanted to go home.
However, Jackson purposely failed to provide his exact address as the destination, which Judge Batiste suspected was to prevent him being identified later.
At one point the woman got out, but Jackson also got out and put her back into the cab while she protested, shouting “no, no”.
When they eventually got out at Flanshaw Lane, Jackson paid the fare as the woman repeatedly fell over.
The taxi driver was so suspicious by that point that he said he was going to ring the police, but Jackson encouraged him to just drive away.
But as the driver dialled 999, he then looked up to see Jackson running off.
The taxi driver then took the woman to Pinderfields Hospital.
Jackson, of Flanshaw Lane, who has no previous convictions, was later arrested and during his interview accepted meeting and leaving with the woman, but claimed it was consensual.
Judge Batiste told Jackson: “What is wholly evident is that anyone would realise she was utterly incapable. She could not walk on her own.
“The jury rejected that it was an act of a ‘Good Samaritan’.
“This was obviously a deliberate targeting of a vulnerable victim.”
He jailed Jackson for four years.