Filey man spared jail after 'marked improvement' since offence

Karl Cairns, 38, from Filey, asked the cabbie to drive him to Scarborough but it very soon turned into the journey from hell, York Crown Court heard.

Cairns, who was drunk, pulled out a knife as the taxi driver set off from Filey, threatened to jump out of the cab as he hung out of the passenger door, then grabbed the steering wheel and tried to “pull it in the direction of the kerb” as the vehicle veered towards the edge of the road and the cabbie tried desperately to correct its course.

Prosecutor Rachel Webster said the terrifying incident began when Cairns walked up to the cab parked in Queen Street, Filey, holding a box of alcohol.

The driver wound his window down to greet the customer who replied: “Hi taxi driver, are you Romanian? Are you Polish?”

Cairns got into the taxi, then reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a knife. As he did so, he turned to the driver and said: “I’ve got a knife. Do you want me to stab you? Well, do you want to stab me?”

When the cab driver said, “No, I’m a family man”, Cairns put the blade back in his pocket.

As the journey continued along the A165 towards Scarborough, Cairns suddenly opened the passenger door while the vehicle was travelling at about 50mph.

When the driver asked him to close the door, Cairns - now leaning outside the door, hanging onto the door handle - shouted: “Do you want me to jump? I’m going to jump.”

He eventually closed the door but then started “swearing out loud” and pulled the knife out again, holding it aloft and again threatening to “use it”.

He then opened the passenger door again and shouted: “I’m going to jump.”

The driver pleaded with him to shut the door which he did but then opened it a third time and closed it again as they drove out of Cayton Bay.

Cairns became increasingly “agitated” as they drove towards Scarborough and placed the carton of “beer or cider” on the dashboard.

The driver had to hold the alcohol container as they approached Scarborough, but then Cairns grabbed the steering wheel and started “pulling it in the direction of the kerb”.

As the vehicle began to veer towards the edge of the road, the driver managed to pull the steering wheel back in the other direction to correct its course and “regain control”.

Cairns then jumped out of the car and ran off, leaving behind the knife which was dropped in the passenger well.

The driver took the blade to a local police station and Cairns was later arrested.

The court heard that at one stage in the journey, Cairns held the knife to the taxi driver’s throat and held it to his own throat.

Cairns, of Rowan Avenue, was charged with threatening a person with a blade and carrying a knife in public.

He admitted the offences and initially appeared for sentence in May, when a judge deferred sentence for six months to give Cairns a chance to stay out of trouble and find a job to avoid prison after he was told that the Filey man had been behaving “exceptionally well” since the offence.

Cairns - who has 89 previous offences on his record including affray and carrying a blade – appeared in the dock again today (November 13) when judge Sean Morris, who described the Filey man’s behaviour as “shocking”, gave him a 14-month jail sentence suspended for 18 months.

Defence barrister Connor Stuart said that Cairns was suffering from “a combination of mental disorders” at the time of the taxi journey, including a “personality disorder, compounded by substance misuse”.

He said that Cairns’s behaviour had been affected by Pregabalin, the prescription drug ordinarily used as a painkiller, which he was taking at the time.

He said that since the terrifying taxi drive on the evening of November 29, 2024, which occurred during a “period of instability and poor mental health”, Cairns had shown a “marked improvement” and had “changed considerably” following rehabilitation in the community.

Judge Mr Morris said there was compelling evidence to suggest that Cairns was “somewhat unhinged” at the time of the “bizarre” knife offence and that the defendant had been affected by Pregabalin.

As part of the 14-month suspended jail sentence, Cairns was made subject to a three-month doorstep curfew between 7pm and 5am daily and was ordered to pay £300 compensation to the taxi driver, along with a £187 statutory surcharge.