A Caithness cabbie has gone on trial accused of stalking and sexually assaulting women who used his taxi service.
Robert Robinson denies one count of sexual assault, one count of sexual assault with intent to rape and a single stalking charge as well as intentionally causing another to hear an indecent communication without consent.
The jury at Inverness Sheriff Court heard evidence from a woman who claims she was targeted by Robinson after she rode in his taxi with a friend.
Under questioning from fiscal depute Robert Weir the woman said the incidents began with the 58-year-old smacking her on the bottom and making suggestive comments when she got out of his taxi.
She said: “Getting in and out of the taxi he would be smacking my bum and saying things that were inappropriate – saying I had nice breasts and could he have a feel.
“I think he said something like: ‘You have got a fine set.'”
‘He would just ask for a feel’
Jurors heard how following these initial meetings, Robinson – of Trostan Terrace, Thurso – would then drive by her home and look in her windows, before entering the property “loads of times” uninvited.
A support worker who had been visiting the woman told the court that she had seen a taxi pull up alongside the house and the driver looking in the windows.
A neighbour also told how she had seen a taxi pull up outside on a number of occasions without dropping off or collecting any passengers.
The woman, who is in her 30s, detailed how the taxi driver would come to her door or into her house and try to kiss her or touch her inappropriately on the chest and private areas, despite her protestations.
“He just put his hands down my trousers,” she told the court, adding: “He would just ask for a feel. I would be quite shy and taken aback and say no but he would continue to try.”
Asked how she felt, she replied: “Just scared and a bit confused.”
On one occasion, she told the court he pushed her onto a sofa and sat astride her saying “I’m not going to rape you but I’ll have fun trying”.
‘I told him he was disgusting’
On another occasion jurors were told that Robinson pushed her up against a wall and told her he “just wanted to stick it in”.
She said he then grabbed her by the wrist and took her to the staircase of her home, pushed her over and groped her.
“I told him he was disgusting and to just get out of my house,” the woman said, before telling the court that he had replied: “It was just a bit of fun.”
The court heard from a friend of the woman, who had been on the end of the telephone during one of the alleged incidents.
He said he heard Robinson say: “It will only be a quick feel because I have got another job to do at Scrabster at six o’clock.”
Previously jurors had heard from another alleged victim, who told the court that Robinson had attempted to touch her chest and put his hands down her trousers during daytime taxi rides to and from her home.
Both women rejected suggestions from defence solicitor Graham Mann that the events they described did not happen.
Alleged victim described as ‘flirtatious’
The court also heard evidence from the friend of the first witness, who had shared the initial taxi rides with her friend – and who had invited him to her friend’s home.
She described the woman as being “flirtatious” with Robinson and said she (the alleged victim) had even asked him to leave his partner for her.
She said that to her knowledge Robinson had been invited into the woman’s home “once or twice” and said that on one occasion: “Robert might have touched her bum.”
She said: “It wasn’t aggressive or anything – it was in a flirtatious way,” adding that she believed the flirtatious behaviour to have been reciprocal between Robinson and the woman.
She described Robinson as “genuine and kind” and added: “I have been out of my face on drugs in Robert’s taxi and he would take me home safely.”
The trial, before Sheriff Margaret Neilson, continues.
