“He had no right to do what he did”
A taxi driver who was repeatedly kicked by a racist yob said he was forced to give up the job as a result. Ahmed Shebaz was racially abused and attacked by Calvin Elliott, 31, after picking up the other man in his cab outside a McDonald’s.
The incident occurred just after midnight on August 12 2023, when Elliott, of Dane Court, Rainhill, and two women entered Mr Shebaz’s cab on Liverpool Road, Huyton. When Mr Shebaz asked the three of them to leave their drinks behind, Elliott became “unfriendly and aggressive” and said: “You are Muslim, you are making us Muslim, why can we not drink in the car?”
He continued to be aggressive, repeatedly bringing up his race and religion and shouting: “Why are you here? Why do you work here?” He asked Mr Shebaz to stop the car, and when he did, he jumped out and began to kick the driver’s door. He then opened the door and kicked Mr Shebaz in the leg several times.
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Mr Shebaz was able to shut the car door and drive away. Following the incident, Elliott called Britannia Taxis in a rage and spouted racial slurs about the taxi driver before demanding: “I need your colleague’s number, Westfield Street, got a mate going up for a taxi, possible bottle of acid for him.”
At Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday, December 18, Mr Shebaz said in a statement that he missed three weeks of work following the attack as he was “so worried that something like this could happen again”.
He said: “The man who attacked and abused me did so for no reason and this meant that I started to worry about everything. I have struggled to get over the psychological impacts of the incident, and it has taken me a long time to feel confident again.
“The fact the man who did this seemed to not care at all about his behaviour towards me made it ever worse as I just couldn’t come to terms with how someone could behave this way to another person. He had no right to do what he did.
“As a result of the incident, I had to have conversations with my family about my profession. I enjoyed being a taxi driver, but after this happened, my family became very worried and concerned about me and how, if something like this can happen once, it can happen again. Therefore, I had to change my profession. I no longer work as a taxi driver.
“The fact I felt compelled to change my job as a result of this incident meant that my entire family was affected. With the cost of living, changing my job was not easy and this placed pressure on my family.
“All of which was a direct consequence of what this man did to me and how I felt scared that it could happen again. His behaviour has had a lasting effect on me and my family and I hope he realises that his behaviour was completely out of order.”
Elliot pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault and three counts of sending malicious communications intending to cause distress. He was sentenced to three months in prison for racially aggravated assault and nine months for the malicious communications offences, bringing his total sentence to 12 months.
