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Thug, 23, jailed for cabbie attack

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CCTV of the attack on
cabbie Gordon Bailey

by Keith Hunt

A pretty brunette who joined her boyfriend in the vicious
robbery of a Gravesend cabbie has been locked up indefinitely – for
the second time.

Charlotte Hill was already serving imprisonment for public
protection for causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

That offence was committed eight months after the 23-year-old
and Mark Heanan robbed taxi driver Gordon Bailey.

Charlotte Hill, of no fixed address, sentenced indefinitely at Maidstone Crown Court for attacking Gravesend taxi driver Gordon Bailey in Paddock Wood in 2009
Charlotte Hill, of no fixed address, sentenced indefinitely at Maidstone Crown Court for attacking Gravesend taxi driver Gordon Bailey in Paddock Wood in 2009

Sentencing for the attack on Mr Bailey, however, had
been delayed.

A judge had branded the robbery, captured on security cameras in
the cab, a “feral attack of chilling and persistent severity”.

Catherine Donnelly, prosecuting, said the 65-year-old
self-employed cabbie received a call on July 13, 2009, to pick up
two people from the Railway Tavern in Sole Street and take them to
Paddock Wood.

They told Mr Bailey they only had £6 but would pay the remaining
£34 on arrival at their destination.

During the journey Heanan, 23, complained about CCTV cameras
filming him and he and Hill were difficult.

When they arrived at Paddock Wood late in the evening, Heanan
leapt from the back seat into the front and shouted abuse.

Miss Donnelly told Maidstone Crown Court Heanan grabbed the
victim around the neck and punched him in the face.

Hill tried to pull Mr Bailey out of the taxi. Heanan continued
with the attack outside and kicked the cabbie repeatedly in the
body and head. The couple stole £50.

Mr Bailey suffered extensive facial bone fractures, including to
his eye sockets, cheek and jaw.

Heanan, of Caravan Site, Romani Way, Hever Road, Edenbridge, was
sentenced on March 5 last year.

He will not be considered for release until he has served three
years and five months.

Hill, of no address, was given the first indeterminate sentence,
with a two-and-a-half-year minimum term, in March last year.

Judge Andrew Patience QC imposed the second imprisonment for
public protection this week on Hill, who admitted robbery, with a
minimum term of two years.

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