A TAXI driver has been left feeling physically sick every time he goes to work after he was subjected to a savage attack.

He was punched more than 20 times in a row over a fare.

The assault was described when 26-year-old Anthony Thomas John was jailed at Swansea Crown Court.

He was sent down for 20 months after pleading guilty to wounding cabbie Christopher White in a late-night assault last December.

Judge Peter Heywood told John, of Llanllienwen Close, Ynysforgan: "This was an unprovoked and sustained attack on a vulnerable victim.

"You completely lost your self-control in a vicious, savage and brutish attack that was totally unnecessary."

Paul Hobson, prosecuting, said that on December 13 the defendant and his girlfriend got into the car of Yellow Cabs driver Mr White in the city's Hafod area and asked to be taken to Morriston.

But shortly after the journey began, John — who was drunk — began complaining about the tariff that had been set.

When Mr White stopped, John lost his temper and repeatedly punched him to the face and head — first from the front passenger seat, then after getting out of the vehicle.

The cabbie was hit more than 20 times, the court heard, suffering multiple lacerations to his ear, nose, scalp and eyelid.

When arrested, John referred to Mr White in abusive terms and claimed to have been acting in self-defence.

The court heard that, in a victim impact statement, Mr White said the attack had left him feeling very insecure.

He now felt "physically sick" when going to work, and was extremely nervous when picking up passengers.

Horrendous

Robin Rouch, in mitigation, conceded that an immediate jail term was inevitable, adding: "The defendant is concerned about the impact of his imprisonment on his young son."

After seeing photographs taken shortly after the attack, showing Mr White's face and head covered in blood, Judge Heywood described the images as "quite horrendous".

The judge said that if John had contested the case and been found guilty by a jury, the sentence would have been two-and-a-half years.

But the defendant's guilty plea at an early stage of proceedings enabled the court to reduce this by 10 months.

Following the case, a Swansea taxi firm said the fare from Hafod to Morriston after midnight would be around £10.

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